MRSA Notes

As I reported last week, Pennsylvania is at the forefront of MRSA awareness, and this week is no exception. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has been gathering statistics about MRSA in its hospitals with the intention of improving the quality of health care and reducing the associated costs in its state. You can read the report in its entirety at the PHC4 web site.

The Pittsburgh Live website has published a complaint about the data - raised by a member of the health care system - that you might like to read here.

You can read a summary of the report after the jump.

Compared to patients without a MRSA infection, patients with a MRSA infection were four times as likely to die, had hospital stays more than two and a half times longer, with hospital charges three times as much for the hospitalization.

Specifically, the mortality rates for patients with and without a MRSA infection in 2004 were 8.9% and 2.1%, respectively. On average, patients with a MRSA infection stayed in the hospital eight days longer than patients without a MRSA infection. Whereas the average charge of a hospitalization with a MRSA infection was $87,990, the average charge for a hospitalization without a MRSA infection was $28,711.

In July of 2005, Pennsylvania (PHC4) became the first state to publicly report hospital-acquired infection numbers, and has issued two subsequent infection reports. Those reports have focused on four types of hospital-acquired infections (central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, surgical site infections, and indwelling catheter-associated urinary tract infections).

PHC4 is now reporting that of the 1,932 patients identified by hospitals as having hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in year 2004, 11.2% (217) had a MRSA infection. Of the 1,335 patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia, 9.2% (123) had a MRSA infection. Of the 1,317 patients with hospital-acquired surgical site infections, 6.6% (87) had a MRSA infection. Of the 6,139 patients with hospital-acquired urinary tract infections, 3.3% (200) had a MRSA infection. It is not known if MRSA was the bacteria responsible for these hospital-acquired infections.

Other findings:

* About half (50.9%) of all hospitalizations with MRSA infections were among patients with respiratory diseases, disorders of the circulatory system, and infectious and parasitic diseases.
* More than half (54%) of hospitalizations with MRSA infections were for patients age 65 and older, followed by those in the 45 to 64 age category (27%) and the 25 to 44 age category (13%). The 18 to 24 age category and the 0 to 17 age category each comprised 3% of the MRSA hospitalizations.
* The MRSA infection rate was similar for hospitals of all sizes.
* Geographic differences in the rate of MRSA-related hospital discharges were found.
* The Southeastern Pennsylvania region (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties) had the highest MRSA infection rate.
* The Southcentral Pennsylvania region (Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties) had the lowest MRSA infection rate.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is an independent state agency charged with collecting, analyzing and reporting information that can be used to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in Pennsylvania. Copies of MRSA in Pennsylvania Hospitals are free and available on the Council’s Web site at http://www.phc4.org

Awareness, MRSA in the U.S., Pennsylvania, Research and Development

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