In the past two years, the rate of MRSA infection among hospitalized Americans has been twice as high, and in some cases even three times as high, as expected by federal health officials.
Catheter-related transmission of blood-borne pathogens was similarly standard. Hospital-acquired MRSA and bloodstream infection rates have risen to their highest levels in five years due to the ongoing pandemic.
Experts in the healthcare industry are concerned that a lack of personnel has compromised the reliability of protocols for sterilizing medical equipment. According to Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group, hospital administrators worldwide should make this their top goal. Measures of infection control effectiveness include the ratio of new disease cases among hospitalized patients to the number of instances forecasted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The most recent data is up to June 2022, and it shows that in 150 facilities, the rate of MRSA or bloodstream infections was three times higher than projected. Federal officials believe that the pandemic has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people who contracted infections while receiving treatment. This is because the catheters, IV lines, and ventilators used to save lives can act as pathways for germs to bypass the immune system.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, the rate of MRSA and bloodstream infections in West Virginia hospitals has increased more than twice as fast as was projected. Another area for development is the CDC’s data collection, which obscures individual facility performance by lumping together many institutions that are part of the same hospital system.
More than 1,400 events resulting in severe or permanent injury were reported to the nation’s primary healthcare accreditor in 2018, a 10-year high and an increase of nearly 500 from 2019. Between 70,000 and 100,000 people lose their lives every year due to preventable medical mistakes, and many more face potentially fatal complications due to their treatment.
