• Dtsch Arztebl Int · Sep 2010

    Antibiotics: MRSA prevention measures in German hospitals: results of a survey among hospitals, performed as part of the MRSA-KISS module.

    • Iris F Chaberny, Anne Wriggers, Michael Behnke, and Petra Gastmeier.
    • Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Krankenhaushygiene, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
    • Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2010 Sep 1; 107 (37): 631637631-7.

    BackgroundIn this study, we investigated the measures currently being taken in German hospitals to prevent infection with methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). To this end, we circulated a questionnaire among hospitals participating in the MRSA-KISS module. "KISS" in the name of this project stands for "hospital infection surveillance system" (in German, Krankenhaus-Infektions-Surveillance-System).MethodsThe questionnaire was sent to all MRSA-KISS participants. A study doctor visited a representative sample of hospitals to validate the responses. The study doctor checked the questionnaire responses with a systematic on-site interview of the contact person in each hospital, then evaluated the information contained in them by recording all of the MRSA patients who were present in the hospital on the day of the visit in a point-prevalence study (PPS).ResultsAll 134 participants filled out the questionnaire. The screening of patients at risk on admission is an established part of the clinical routine in all of the surveyed hospitals, as are MRSA decolonization procedures. These preventive measures have been recommended for routine use in Germany by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI, the German counterpart of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The surveyed hospitals also used further preventive strategies, including, for example, an alerting system for the identification, upon hospital admission, of patients with a known history of MRSA positivity (72%); pre-admission screening of all patients (13%); universal screening on admission in some hospital wards (19%); and the prophylactic isolation of patients suspected of having MRSA with pending microbiological test results (21%). 35 hospitals were visited for validation. Most of the responses in each hospital were internally consistent and adequately reflected the real situation on site. Less consistency was seen in responses regarding the detection of MRSA by clinical testing and the measures that were taken after MRSA was detected.ConclusionThe surveyed hospitals are, in fact, implementing many of the RKI's recommendations, as well as other preventive measures against MRSA.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.