Even though many consider universal screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections as a best practice for preventing the spread of the antibiotic-resistant infection, screening every patient for MRSA may be too costly for many hospitals, according to two abstracts set to be presented at IDWeek.
Researchers looked at the cost of a program in which staff test all patients for MRSA and then isolate carriers. They found such a program that tested patients for MRSA in the nose would cost a hospital $103,000 per 10,000 hospital admissions while preventing nearly three MRSA infections.
The cost of a program that targeted only high-risk patients also outweighed potential savings from preventing infections, the researchers found. Nares testing prevented fewer than one infection per 1,000 high-risk admissions and created a loss of $36,899.
"Although more extensive MRSA testing and isolation could prevent hospital-acquired MRSA infections, we found the cost of such a program far exceeds any savings to the hospital," said James McKinnell, MD, a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute lead researcher. "Our results are surprising because we know that preventing MRSA infections is better for the healthcare system as a whole, but the rewards of this effort do not seem to come back to the hospital in a meaningful way. In today's constrained healthcare environment, hospitals must either be given better financial incentives or better and more cost-effective infection prevention strategies to provide the greatest benefit to the people they serve."