title: Value of an active surveillance policy to document clearance of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci amongst inpatients with prolonged admissions.
abstract: This article reports the impact of an active surveillance policy to identify clearance of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in known colonized inpatients with prolonged admissions in order to discontinue isolation precautions. Amongst 365 colonized patients with hospital admissions exceeding 30 days, clearance rates of 11% for MRSA and 18% for VRE were found after a median of 23 days and 26.5 days, respectively, resulting in a saving of 2152 patient-days of contact precautions over one year. This has proven to be a cost-beneficial policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Al-Mutawa
authors.affiliation: Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Diseases Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: mertzd@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mertz
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance; D065507:Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci / Q000302:isolation & purification*
keywords: Carriage; Clearance; Contact precautions; Isolation; MRSA; Surveillance; VRE