Occurrence of and risk factors for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at a teaching hospital in Philadelphia

Abstract

Manual medical record mining and data analysis were performed at a tertiary care university teaching hospital to establish the rate of occurrence of and risk factors for infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Patients with surgical site infections had the highest rate of MRSA infection, representing 59% of the MRSA infections recorded. The mortality rate in patients with relapsed MRSA was 45% (13 of 30), compared with no deaths in 149 new MRSA cases. The majority of deaths in patients with relapsed MRSA occurred in the intensive care unit.