A recent study found that hospital patients with increasingly common MRSA infections are
four times as likely to die,
charged three times as much, and
will stay in the hospital two and a half times as long.
Hospitals in our state can do far more to curb the spread of dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, and you can make it happen. We want to know which hospitals are using "active surveillance," a proven method to control the spread of MRSA.
MRSA is associated with serious surgical infections, bloodstream infections and pneumonia. Many people with MRSA live with it for years, have multiple surgeries and are permanently disabled. MRSA accounts for 60 to 65 percent of hospital-acquired staph infections. It is spreading so quickly inside our medical facilities, we don't have any time to waste.
But it can be stopped. Hospitals have significantly reduced MRSA by using "active surveillance," in which patients are screened for MRSA so the bacteria can be eliminated and so hospital staff can use appropriate precautions to prevent the MRSA from spreading to other patients. If we don't check to see if a patient is colonized, we can't treat it and we can't prevent its spread.
Based on success in decreasing MRSA in Pennsylvania VA hospitals, in January, the VA directed all Veterans Hospitals in the US to screen ICU and other at-risk patients for MRSA by using nasal swabs to test patients for the bacteria and isolating those carrying it. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center reduced MRSA infections by 80 percent by using active surveillance in selected intensive care units.
All hospitals should be using "active surveillance," which has been validated by more than 100 studies around the world as an effective prevention technique. The CDC and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America have issued guidelines that describe the procedures for "active surveillance." Most hospitals are familiar with these yet few choose to use them.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/987031517
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