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. 2016 Feb 5;11(2):e0148175.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148175. eCollection 2016.

Costs and Benefits Associated with the MRSA Search and Destroy Policy in a Hospital in the Region Kennemerland, The Netherlands

Dennis Souverein  1 , Patricia Houtman  2 , Sjoerd M Euser  1 , Bjorn L Herpers  1 , Jan Kluytmans  3 , Jeroen W Den Boer  1
Affiliations

Costs and Benefits Associated with the MRSA Search and Destroy Policy in a Hospital in the Region Kennemerland, The Netherlands

Dennis Souverein et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the costs and benefits of the MRSA Search and Destroy (S&D) policy between 2008 and 2013 in the Kennemer Gasthuis, a 400 bed teaching hospital in the region Kennemerland, the Netherlands.

Methods: A patient registration database was used to retrospectively calculate costs, including screening, isolation, follow-up, contact tracing, cleaning, treatment, deployment of extra healthcare workers, salary for an infection control practitioner (ICP) and service of isolation rooms. The estimated benefits (costs and lives when no MRSA S&D was applied) were based on a varying MRSA prevalence rate (up to 50%).

Results: When no MRSA S&D policy was applied, the additional costs and deaths due to MRSA bacteraemia were estimated to be € 1,388,907 and 33 respectively (at a MRSA prevalence rate of 50%). Currently, the total costs were estimated to be € 290,672 (€ 48,445 annually) and a MRSA prevalence rate of 17.3% was considered as break-even point. Between 2008 and 2013, a total of 576 high risk patients were screened for MRSA carriage, of whom 19 (3.3%) were found to be MRSA positive. Forty-nine patients (72.1%) were found unexpectedly.

Conclusions: Application of the MRSA S&D policy saves lives and money, although the high rate of unexpected MRSA cases is alarming.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Annually average costs per category for the MRSA Search and Destroy policy in the Kennemer Gasthuis, Netherlands.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Annual costs and benefits of the MRSA S&D policy with a changing MRSA prevalence rate.
The number above the MRSA prevalence rate describes the number of additional deaths per year at the associated prevalence rate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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