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MRSA Rates Reduced by Conventional Infection Control Measures
These include measures such as hand hygiene, efforts to reduce device-related infections and chlorhexidine bathing (a daily bath with the same antibacterial agent used by surgeons to "scrub in" before an operation), is successful in reducing rates of healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The findings were presented today at the Fifth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections.
In an effort to reduce MRSA rates, some states have mandated active surveillance programs for patients admitted to hospitals. However, screening patients for MRSA remains controversial, with critics pointing to its expense, the tying of scarce infection prevention resources to one particular pathogen and the potential for adverse outcomes when patients who test positive are placed in isolation with reduced contact with healthcare personnel.
Over a seven year period, beginning in 2004, the medical center instituted a series of non-pathogen specific initiatives to reduce HAIs including an increasingly aggressive hand hygiene program, a central line bundle, a ventilator bundle, and chlorhexidine bathing of all adult ICU patients and a recommendation for bare below the elbows, along with compliance monitoring and feedback via unit-specific posters. Active surveillance cultures were not performed.
During this time, Michael Edmond, MD, MPH, MPA, chair of the division of infectious diseases, and colleagues observed a 91percent reduction in MRSA central line associated bloodstream infections, a 62 percent reduction in MRSA catheter-associated urinary tract infections and a 92 percent reduction in MRSA ventilator associated pneumonia. These outcomes were observed in a 16-bed medical ICU, 18-bed surgical ICU and 14-bed neuroscience ICU.
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