Military Officer - June 2008 - (Page 72)

H Some military hospitals are tackling the issue of health care-associated infections head-on by developing innovative and practical programs for both health care workers and patients. Let’s look at how three hospitals are meeting this challenge and provide tips on how you can protect yourself as a patient. — those that strike patients when they are being treated for other conditions in a hospital or other health care facility — are one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An estimated 1.7 million patients are affected yearly, and 99,000 die from health care-associated infections, which most commonly strike the urinary tract, surgical sites, lungs (resulting in pneumonia), and bloodstream. The cost of treating these infections runs into the tens of billions of dollars annually. H E A LTH C A RE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS In 2001, VAPHS became one of the ﬁrst hospitals in the U.S. to implement a set of simple but aggressive strategies, called the VHA (Veterans Health Administration) MRSA Prevention Initiative, to reduce MRSA infections. The ﬁrst step was to screen all patients in one 40-bed surgical unit for MRSA bacteria using a simple nasal swab test. Patients who were found to be “colonized” (meaning the bacteria were present but not causing an infection or any other symptoms) were transferred to isolation rooms to prevent the spread of MRSA. Health care staff also adhered to vigilant hygiene standards, which included washing or thoroughly sanitizing their hands before and after touching every patient. “Within two years, the MRSA infection rate in the surgical unit had dropped by half,” says Laura Morris, infection control practitioner at VAPHS. “In 2004, the hospital began screening every patient for MRSA on arrival, and infection rates throughout the hospital fell by 50 percent. We’ve maintained these low rates since then.” The hospital has seen reductions in other kinds of bacterial infections, too. The success of the VHA MRSA Prevention Initiative, which was expanded to all VHA medical facilities in March 2007, runs counter to some experts’ claims that screening all incoming patients is too time-consuming and costly. Even the CDC recommends screening only high-risk patients, and few states mandate testing for or reporting of MRSA infection. “There is a cost to the manpower and testing supplies needed to screen all patients, but in the long run, these costs are minimal when you compare them to the $30,000 to $40,000 that it costs to treat a MRSA infection,” says Morris. If other VA hospitals replicate the success of VAPHS, the entire system could serve as a model for other military and civilian hospitals nationwide. Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Health Care System (VAPHS) VAPHS has achieved signiﬁcant success in ﬁghting a dangerous bacterium known as methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which lives in the nasal passages and on the skin. In most cases, MRSA bacteria is harmless, but in those who have depressed immune systems or wounds through which bacteria can enter (as often is the case with hospitalized patients), it can cause serious infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatment. A recent government study estimated that more than 94,000 patients developed MRSA infections in 2005, and nearly one in ﬁve died. 72 MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2008 Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio Although it’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent infection, health care workers fol-

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Military Officer - June 2008 Contents MOAA Online From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire MOAA Member Services Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor MOAA Scholarship Donors Cover Story: Mission to Modernize World War Web Playing to Win Fitness in Numbers Fighting Infection Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2008

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