While the incidence of the most common strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections has decreased in hospital-onset cases, new research shows that it has failed to decline in the general community, as evidenced from the study in The Journal of Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. MRSA infections are an ongoing issue in healthcare settings, but the […]

by Phenelle Segal Despite significant advances in the reduction of healthcare-associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the process for prevention of transmission remains tedious, time consuming, demanding of healthcare personnel, costly and, oftentimes, unsuccessful. The traditional approach to prevention of transmission of multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) has included screening for colonization (e.g., MRSA screening of […]

Daily monitoring of patients receiving antimicrobial injections targeting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is associated with improved clinical outcomes, according to a study published online in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. The study included daily reviews of prescriptions and the review occurred within 24 hours after initiation of therapy. The researchers found that implementation of daily review correlated […]

The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, in partnership with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), released a list of five practices to avoid for better infection prevention and control and safer care as part of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign. The recommendations can support conversations between patients and physicians about what care […]

Over-bed tables, bed rails, other flat surfaces, bed linens and patient gowns tend to be the surfaces in a hospital room that are most contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, according to EOS Surfaces. See the infographic below. This infographic was created by EOS Surfaces.

Bacteria’s ability to become resistant to antibiotics is a growing issue in health care: Resistant strains result in prolonged illnesses and higher mortality rates.One way to combat this is to determine bacteria’s antibiotic resistance in a given patient, but that often takes days — and time is crucial in treatment. ASU scientists have developed a […]

Hand hygiene compliance affected MRSA colonization in single-patient and open-model rooms alike in a neonatal ICU, but average daily census only affected infants in single-patient rooms, according to research published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.Further, single-patient rooms did not reduce rates of MRSA colonization, late-onset sepsis or death in a retrospective cohort study conducted […]

Read the full brief at HealthAffairs.org”According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States alone. In 2013 there were about 480,000 new global cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), gonorrhea may soon […]