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Screening for MRSA: A Flawed Hospital Infection Control Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Richard P. Wenzel ,
Gonzalo Bearman  and
Michael B. Edmond
Richard P. Wenzel*
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Virginia Campus, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
Gonzalo Bearman
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Virginia Campus, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
Michael B. Edmond
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Virginia Campus, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
*
1001 East Broad Street, PO Box 980663, Richmond, VA 23298
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Abstract

Focusing hospital resources on a single antibiotic-resistant pathogen as a sole approach to infection control is inherently flawed. We applied attributable mortality principles to a basic model of bloodstream infections to outline the argument. Screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus alone made sense in the 1980s, but the ongoing emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci and antibiotic-resistant strains of gram-negative rods and Candida species, as well as the recognition of the value of team-based infection control programs, support a population-based approach.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 29 , Issue 11 , November 2008 , pp. 1012 - 1018
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2008

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