Abstract
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of preventable nosocomial infections and is endemic in hospitals worldwide. The effectiveness of infection control policies varies significantly across hospital settings. The impact of the hospital context towards the rate of nosocomial MRSA infections and the success of infection control is understudied. We conducted a modelling study to evaluate several infection control policies in surgical, intensive care, and medical ward specialties, each with distinct ward conditions and policies, of a tertiary public hospital in Sydney, Australia. We reconfirm hand hygiene as the most successful policy and find it to be necessary for the success of other policies. Active screening for MRSA, patient isolation in single-bed rooms, and additional staffing were found to be less effective. Across these ward specialties, MRSA transmission risk varied by 13% and reductions in the prevalence and nosocomial incidence rate of MRSA due to infection control policies varied by up to 45%. Different levels of infection control were required to reduce and control nosocomial MRSA infections for each ward specialty. Infection control policies and policy targets should be specific for the ward and context of the hospital. The model we developed is generic and can be calibrated to represent different ward settings and pathogens transmitted between patients indirectly through health care workers. This can aid the timely and cost effective design of synergistic and context specific infection control policies.
Highlights
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of preventable nosocomial infections and is endemic in hospitals worldwide [1]
The prevalence of MRSA amongst Staphylococcus aureus isolates collected by health care facilities and hospitals worldwide ranged from less than 1% to greater than 80% [1,11]
Several studies demonstrated that disease transmission dynamics simulated for a hospital differs when you explicitly model wards in the hospital [15,16,17]
Summary
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of preventable nosocomial (or hospital acquired) infections and is endemic in hospitals worldwide [1]. Hospitals have applied a wide range of infection control policies to reduce the burden of nosocomial infections These include contact precautions [6,7], cohorting by grouping staff with particular patients or allocating staff or patients to designated areas [8], surveillance for multidrug-resistant pathogens [9], decolonisation treatment to reduce carriage of MRSA in patients [8], and restricted or strategic use of antimicrobials to prevent the development of multidrug-resistant infections [10]. We conducted a modelling study that compared the differences in the prevalence and nosocomial incidence rate of MRSA, and in the effectiveness of several hospital-wide infection control policies, across three different ward specialties
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.