Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)

Project Overview

MRSA represents a growing public health and safety concern in the United States, and is associated with increased hospital length of stays, higher costs, and increased mortality rates. Effective prevention and transmission strategies can promote patient safety through the decrease of MRSA infections in the hospital setting.

Estimates based on calendar year 2005 US data reflect:

94,000+ invasive MRSA infections in population
19,000 (approx) died (18%) during initial population
86% of invasive MRSA disease exposures to hospitals or health care settings
14% - no recent hospitalization or other risk factors
Majority of cases overall had infection manifest or discovered when the person was out of the hospital:
- 58% were community-onset HA-MRSA infections (e.g., persons recently discharged from a hospital or recently had surgery)
- 27% were hospital-onset HA-MRSA infections (i.e., the typical nosocomial MRSA infections)
- 14% were community associated CA-MRSA infections

Klevens RM, Morrison MA, Nadle J, et al. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. JAMA. 2007;1763-1771.

Project Objective

As part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 9th Scope of Work, CFMC is collaborating with participating Colorado hospitals to reduce the incidence of healthcare-associated MRSA infections and transmission.

Prevention and Transmission Strategies

Consistent hand hygiene
Use of standard precautions
Effective environmental cleaning
Active surveillance testing

Measures

CFMC supports participating Colorado hospitals in reporting MRSA data to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) to track infection and transmission rates and continue the establishment of a national registry for MRSA monitoring.

Presentations

Fighting the Multi-Resistant MRSA presented by Peggy Luebbert, 05/13/10

WebEx Recording | PowerPoint Handout

MRSA and the Surgical Patient presented by Nina Shik, 4/8/10

WebEx Recording | PowerPoint Handout

Links

Questions?

For more information, visit and bookmark the MRSA website at MedQIC or contact Deanna Curry, Patient Safety Interventionist, at 303.847.1727 or dcurry@coqio.sdps.org.

The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), the Medicare quality improvement organization for Colorado, prepared this material under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS Policy.