title: Classification of MRSA cases detected at the time of hospital admission: does the 'look-back' period matter?
abstract: Limited resources for infection control necessitate efficient local surveillance. Cases of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from the authors' hospital surveillance system were examined to determine if attribution of cases as healthcare-associated or non-healthcare-associated differed when using a 12-month vs a four-week 'look-back' period. Two additional cases were reclassified from non-healthcare-associated to healthcare-associated, representing a 2% reclassification rate between four-week and 12-month criteria (P = 0.857). Infection control programmes may save time and resources by minimizing retrospective review of records without compromising data quality due to misclassification.
authors.affiliation: Infection Prevention and Control, St. Paul's Hospital, Providence Health Care, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. vleung@providencehealth.bc.ca
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lloyd-Smith
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romney
mesh_terms: D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D006801:Humans; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015995:Prevalence; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013997:Time Factors