The Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Health Administration is seeing positive results from its campaign to reduce healthcare-associated infections of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, according to a study published in American Journal of Infection Control.
Martin E. Evans, MD, led the study, which launched in October 2007. The MRSA Prevention Initiative involved an MRSA prevention coordinator at each facility to implement:
• Universal active surveillance on admission, unit-to-unit transfer and discharge
• Contact precautions for those colonized or infected with MRSA
• Adherence to hand hygiene
• Institutional culture change
Researchers utilized monthly reports on MRSA nares screening, clinical culture data and patient movement data.
Here are five things to know:
1. Between October 2007 and September 2015, monthly HAI rates fell 87 percent in intensive care units.
2. Monthly HAI rates dropped 80.1 percent in non-ICUs.
3. In spinal cord injury units, the rate decreased 80.9 percent.
4. Researchers found the HAI rates fell 49.4 percent in long-term healthcare facilities between July 2009 and September 2015.
5. In September 2015, the study found only two MRSA HAIs in ICUs; 20 in non-ICUs and 31 in LTCFs across the nation.
