Profession
Illinois hospitals to start reporting MRSA infections
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 24, 2007
Illinois became the first state to require hospitals to screen intensive-care unit and other high-risk patients and for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Under a new law that took effect in August, hospitals also have to isolate patients who are infected or colonized with the deadly and increasingly common superbug.
The law requires hospitals to begin reporting MRSA statistics to the state's public health department starting Oct. 1, noting if patients had the infection when they were admitted or acquired it during their stay.
Another new statute requires hospitals to analyze which infections are most common in their facilities and develop plans to combat them. The latter measure was supported by the Chicago chapter of the Assn. of Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology, which opposed the MRSA regulation as too prescriptive.
New Jersey also enacted a MRSA law in August, which took effect in early September. A similar Minnesota provision takes effect Jan. 15, 2008.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/09/24/prbf0924.htm.
