Nearly 14,000 hospitalizations in Pennsylvania involved a serious form of staphylococcus infection in 2004, according to new research by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Pennsylvania was the first state to publicly report hospital-acquired infection numbers last year. Patients with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection had mortality rates of 8.9% (compared with 2.1% of patients without the infection), had their hospital stays extended by eight days, and had average hospital charges of $87,990 versus $28,711 for patients without MRSA. The report did not distinguish between community- and hospital-acquired MRSA infections. The report also found that about half of all hospitalizations with MRSA infections were among patients with respiratory diseases, disorders of the circulatory system, and infectious and parasitic diseases, and 54% of hospitalizations with MRSA infections were for patients age 65 and older.
“There is a shared responsibility among hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians to identify and implement best practices and strategies that are most effective at preventing MRSA transmission,” said the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania in response to the report. Carolyn Scanlan, president and CEO of HAP, enumerated the hospital initiatives under way across the state to prevent hospital-acquired MRSAs and said, “Consumer education is critical, as patients, family members, hospital visitors, as well as community leaders must have access to resources that explain how they can be part of the solution.”
