A Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality program cut hospital-onset bloodstream infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by 65%.
The study, published Aug. 27 in JAMA Network Open, implemented the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Safety Program for MRSA Prevention across 106 ICUs and 87 non-ICUs at 94 hospitals across the U.S. In the study, the 18-month program helped healthcare teams consistently implement comprehensive infection prevention strategies targeting MRSA transmission and infection. Units received education and resources on hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, device-associated infection prevention, chlorhexidine bathing and nasal decolonization, according to a Sept. 14 hospital news release.
Researchers compared infection rates during the 18-month program to the previous 12 months and found:
1. The rate of hospital-onset MRSA bloodstream infections dropped 65% during the implementation period.
2. There was a 39% reduction in MRSA-positive clinical cultures collected later during hospitalization.
3. Researchers found a 37% cut in bloodstream infections from all causes and a 31% reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections.
4. The proportion of units reporting nasal MRSA decolonization for all patients increased from 35% to 61% for ICUs and 13% to 35% for non-ICUs.
5. Monitoring of environmental cleaning also increased from 50% to 75% in ICUs and from 52% to 76% among non-ICUs.
The AHRQ MRSA Prevention Toolkit can be found here.
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