Lawmakers weigh in on MRSA screening debate
Infection Control Weekly Monitor, February 18, 2009
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Typically, hospitals have had the option of whether to screen patients for MRSA, but lately more states are beginning to look into making it a requirement.
Currently four states – California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – require hospitals to screen high-risk patients for MRSA. Last year, eight other states considered similar laws, and at the end of January, legislators in Washington and Kentucky had filed new bills with similar requirements, according to American Medical News.
The proposed bill in Washington was spurred by a report from The Seattle Times that from 1997 to 2007, the incidents of MRSA increased 33-fold.
However, these laws have seen some opposition. Some infection control experts have said that most of these numbers showing such a dramatic increase in cases of MRSAwere drawn from surveillance during outbreaks, contributing to their inflation. In 2007, The Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Association of Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) issued a joint position statement claiming these laws limit infection control programs and are too costly.
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