Researchers performed a cross-sectional observational study in the United Kingdom. They identified MRSA patients at inpatient, outpatient and community settings between Nov. 1, 2011, and Feb. 29, 2012. They also identified genetically defined MRSA transmission clusters in individual hospitals and across the healthcare network.
Of 610 MRSA patients, 248 were linked in 90 transmission clusters, of which 27 spanned multiple hospitals.
Analysis of a large 32-patient sequence type 22-MRSA cluster showed 81.3 percent had multiple contacts with one another during ward stays at any hospital. Thus, ward-based transmission of MRSA due to frequent patient admissions to multiple hospitals is common.
“Limiting in-ward transmission requires sharing of MRSA status data between hospitals,” study authors concluded.
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