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News spotlight: Overcrowded, understaffed hospitals brew higher MRSA rates

Nurse Leader Weekly, June 30, 2008

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Rising MRSA rates are plaguing hospitals in some of the world's most prosperous countries.

Australian researchers at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland, noted many hospitals in Australia, Canada, and the United States have lowered the number of available beds but increased their outpatients, resulting in greater strain on already short-staffed hospital workers.

The study authors argue that many hospitals in these countries are suffering from the ongoing healthcare worker shortage, which puts the quality of patient care and safety at risk, and note there is a significant link between the healthcare worker-to-patient ratio and infection rates.

The review, which was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, links decreased hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers, increased patient transfers between hospital departments, and an overload of screening and isolation facilities as contributing to this failure of MRSA control.

Sources: washingtonpost.com and The Lancet.com.

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