Sobering Facts About MRSA Epidemic
I just read a fascinating article in this month’s issue of Hospitals & Healthcare Networks about the MRSA epidemic, which most experts agree is real. You can read the entire article, but I’ll summarize some of the facts here.
MRSA is a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to common antibiotics. It also seems that staph bacteria, including MRSA, are common causes of skin infections in the U.S., as well as pneumonia, surgical wound infections, and bloodstream infections.
The three leading causes of antibiotic resistance are excessive and unnecessary antibiotic use in humans; excessive antibiotics in cattle, pigs, and chickens, as well as feedlot runoff into streams and groundwater; and bacteria’s ability to adapt and resist antibiotics faster than new ones can be invented.
According to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, as many as 5 percent of hospital and nursing home patients in the U.S. today may be infected or colonized with MRSA bacteria, which is 10 times higher than previously thought.
MRSA is spread almost exclusively by touch. That means people touching each other, touching contaminated objects, or eating food handled by an infected person.
It follows then, that reducing MRSA starts by having clean hands. Hospitals are aggressively promoting this by hanging posters and other reminders in staff rooms, corridors, and patient rooms; keeping soap and gel dispensers full; putting sinks next to beds; using design elements, such as lighting or color coding to highlight those sinks; and advising patients to always ask their caregivers whether they have washed their hands.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
The MRSA epidemic is serious and Hospitals are not doing enough to counteract the fight against the spread. I would encourage every healthcare facility to begin aggressively attacking the root of this problem, and that is looking very carefully at limited visiting hours and placing sinks for handwashing in the Lobby of the Hospital. Other measures need to be addressed as well. NXT will begin looking at these as we continue to develop the Hospital of the Future model. tom jennings