A Quality Improvement Initiative to Prevent and Control a Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) Cluster in a Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Abstract

Background Drug resistant organisms, such as MRSA, pose a serious threat to vulnerable, hospitalized, ill neonates. Guidelines and practices for managing MRSA in the NICU setting vary from no screening or treatment to universal screening with decolonization. Local Problem. The routine screening protocol for MRSA colonization in our NICU required collecting admission surface cultures for MRSA colonization only for neonates transferred from outside institutions, while neonates born at our institution received no screening. A significant increase in the number of MRSA cases was detected, and our NICU team employed Quality …