The University of Maryland School of Medicine kicked off a campaign this month to find the most cost-effective way to treat hospital-acquired infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided $800,000 for the university to study the highly antibiotic strain of staphylococcus aureus, which can add as much as 10 days to a patient?s hospital stay at a cost of more than $25,000.
“Health care-associated infections like [these] account for about 90,000 deaths in the United States and $4.5 billion in excess health care costs each year,” said Dr. Anthony Harris, epidemiologist at the University and co-investigator of the study.
Hospital workers have tested all intensive care patients for years, he said. However, beginning this month, the university staff will screen everyone for risk factors of carrying the bacteria. Harris estimated they will isolate 40 percent to 50 percent of their patients until they confirm them bacteria-free. The CDC estimates as many as one in three people carry the drug resistant staphylococcus bacteria and don?t know it.
In July, medical intensive care workers will begin putting on new gowns and gloves every time they see a new patient, Harris said. The following year, they will repeat those procedures in the surgical intensive care unit.
Many Maryland hospitals already practice or have considered active screening of patients to intensive care or emergency settings.
Nurse Polly Ristaino serves as the infection control coordinator with St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, where the universal screening is practiced in the intensive care unit.
She estimates they spend up to $55,000 a year providing fresh sterile gowns and gloves to workers who attend to isolated patients. The time spent “gowning up” eats up another $81,000. Other costs include the test, which can run from $4.50 to $28 depending on how fast one wants results.
“It?s been very successful at controlling the spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in the hospital,” Ristaino said. The screenings cut infections by 70 percent.
Franklin Square Hospital Center, along with three other Maryland hospitals, began an investigation into infection control in the last few months, Franklin Square Spokeswoman Ming Tai said.
In that state-funded study, they compare infection rates with specific individuals to analyze who uses the best tactics to avoid the spread of germs.
