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Guidelines aim to prevent, reduce prevalence of MRSA
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New guidelines published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology outline strategies to reduce the prevalence of MRSA and prevent MRSA in hospitals.
“Many hospitals have made inroads in preventing health care-associated MRSA through essential prevention strategies, but some hospitals need additional intervention,” David Calfee, MD, MS, associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, and co-lead author of the guidelines with Cassandra Salgado, MD, MS, said in a press release. “This guidance provides a roadmap for prioritizing and implementing strategies.”
Cassandra Salgado
The guidelines are a collaborative effort of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and The Joint Commission.
Two of the recommendations include conducting an MRSA risk assessment and implementing a MRSA monitoring program. MRSA risk assessments should focus on the opportunity for MRSA transmission and estimates of facility-specific MRSA burdens and rates of transmission and infection. The goals of a MRSA monitoring program include identifying patients with current MRSA or a history of MRSA and establishing a mechanism to track hospital-onset cases of the infection that alerts health care personnel of new cases.
The guidelines also stress the importance of hand hygiene, contact precautions and proper cleaning and disinfection of equipment and environment. Patients colonized with MRSA should be separated from the rest of the population and health care personnel should wear gloves and gowns when interacting with these patients.
Education is encouraged for health care personnel, patients and families about MRSA so that they are aware of their role in the prevention and transmission of MRSA. The guidelines also recommend the implementation of an alert system to allow initiation of control measures when a patient has MRSA.
Disclosure: The authors of the guidelines report financial relationships with Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Mölnlycke Health Care, Premier, Sage Products and UpToDate.
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