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MetaStar works with Wisconsin hospitals to decrease MRSA infections.

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) have become one of the overriding issues in health care today. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) allocates $50 million to combating HAIs. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is 1 of the most important HAIs. (MRSA, of course, can be acquired in the community as well.) Hospital stays for MRSA infection have more than tripled since 2000 and have increased nearly 10-fold since 1995. There are known effective interventions that can decrease MRSA infections in the health care setting. MetaStar, under its contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is working with 14 Wisconsin hospitals to reduce the rate of MRSA infections among their patients. First, as in all quality improvement projects, it is necessary to find a way to measure the intended improvement. To measure MRSA infection rates, hospitals participating in this project are submitting or will submit data on their MRSA infection rates to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). NHSN is a voluntary, secure, Internet-based surveillance system that integrates patient and health care personnel safety surveillance systems and is managed by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). Starting in 2008, enrollment in NHSN was opened to hospitals and other types of health care facilities in the United States. Through NHSN’s MultidrugResistant Organism module (MDRO), 2 metrics are being used to measure MRSA infection in hospitals: 1. The MRSA infection rate in the specified hospital unit (number of MRSA infections per thousand patient days). 2. The incidence rate of hospitalacquired MRSA, ie, the transmission rate (number of first MRSA cultures per thousand patient days).