At the Ross Memorial Hospital, we believe that the more patient safety information is available to the public, the better. Today, we're pleased to publish our VRE and MRSA rates on our website, http://www.rmh.org/.

What is MRSA?
Staphylococcus aureus is a germ that lives on the skin and mucous membranes of healthy people. Occasionally, Staphylococcus aureus can cause an infection. When Staphylococcus aureus develops resistance to certain antibiotics, it is called Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA.

Risk factors for MRSA acquisition include invasive procedures, prior treatment with antibiotics, prolonged hospital stay, stay in an intensive care or burn unit, surgical wound infection and close proximity to a colonized person. MRSA can also be transmitted from mother to child through breast milk. MRSA is spread from one person to another by contact, usually on the hands of caregivers. MRSA can be present on a person's hands, either from touching contaminants excreted by the infected person or from touching articles contaminated by the skin of an infected person, such as towels, sheets and wound dressings. MRSA can live on hands and objects in the environment. Mild cases may not require treatment; severe cases may require other antibiotics.

What is VRE?
Enterococci are bacteria that are normally present in the human intestines and are often found in the environment. These bacteria can sometimes cause infections. Vancomycin is an antibiotic that is often used to treat infections caused by enterococci. In some instances, enterococci have become resistant to this drug and thus are called vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).

Risk factors for VRE acquisition include severity of underlying illness, presence of invasive devices, prior colonization with VRE, antibiotic use and length of hospital stay. VRE also spreads through contact. VRE can survive for hours on hands and can survive for weeks on objects such as toilet seats, taps, door handles, bedrails, furniture and bedpans. VRE is easy to kill with the proper use of disinfectants and good hand hygiene.

Public Reporting
Beginning today, Ross Memorial will post our quarterly rate and case count of both MRSA and VRE bacteraemia acquired in the Hospital (nosocomial). The first reporting period will cover the months of September, October and November. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care will also report the previous quarter's data on its website, www.ontario.ca/patientsafety.

The method of calculation of the MRSA or VRE bacteraemia infection rate is:

Number of nosocomial patients with laboratory identification of MRSA bacteraemia x 1000
                                    Total number of patient days

Where the numerator is the total number of newly identified cases for MRSA bacteraemia associated with the reporting facility, for the reporting period.  The denominator is the total number of in-patient days for the reporting period. There are no exclusion criteria. The calculation noted above is the same for VRE bacteraemia.

The Ross Memorial Hospital will report this data to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care on a monthly basis, thereby ensuring that the Ministry has access to data for each month which will be used for future trending reporting on MRSA and VRE bacteraemia, however, the numbers are anticipated to be very low for monthly reporting, so public updates will be made quarterly.

The Ross Memorial began publishing our monthly C.difficile rates in September. In April, we'll be including our rates of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, Central-line Infections, and Surgical Site Infections for Hip and Knee Surgeries. Public reporting of hand hygiene compliance among hospital staff will also be reported at that time.

Our Commitment
Our Hospital strongly supports the provincial government's new public reporting regime, because we believe it will inspire improved performance, enhance patient safety, and strengthen the public's confidence in the Ross. Public reporting of MRSA, VRE and other indicators is another, helpful measure to ensure the care provided to our patients is safe, and improves over time.

By visiting our website, and clicking the Quality & Patient Safety link, the public can learn more about the Hospital's quality standards such as our average length of stay, and accountability measures, including our patient satisfaction scores. We're pleased to share this information with the community; patients and visitors should know our Hospital is safe and that every effort is being made to ensure you receive safe, high-quality care.

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