CONTACT:
Barbara Schwartz
516-376-7767 x403 e-mail: bschwartz@ipro.org
IPRO, the federally funded Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for New York State, is pleased to announce its support of MRSA Awareness Month as part of its commitment to the health and safety of New Yorkers.
MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics. Nationally, MRSA infections kill thousands of people each year and are estimated to increase healthcare costs by more than $2.5 billion.
As part of its quality improvement work through its QIO contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), IPRO is working with hospitals across New York State to reduce the incidence of MRSA.
“Nationally, invasive MRSA infections occur in approximately 94,000 people in the U.S. each year, resulting in about 19,000 deaths each year,” said Clare B. Bradley, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at IPRO. “At IPRO, we are working closely with hospitals across the state to reduce the incidence and transmission of MRSA.”
“We at CMS are deeply concerned about the upward trend in MRSA infections over the past few decades, particularly in those patients who are already acutely ill enough to require inpatient hospitalization,” said Paul E. McGann, M.D., Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “By working with hospitals across the state, QIOs can serve as go-to resources for slowing-and hopefully one day, stopping-the spread of this debilitating complication of treatment.”
IPRO’s efforts to reduce the incidence of MRSA are part of CMS’ National Patient Safety Initiative, which employs proven strategies to reduce patient harm. “Reducing the rates of hospital-acquired MRSA is one of the key areas where we as a healthcare community can come together and implement common-sense solutions to reduce or eliminate causes of patient harm that result from patients’ interactions with the healthcare system, rather than from other causes,” said Dr. McGann. “Reducing MRSA rates in healthcare facilities will, by definition, increase the value of healthcare services as it produces higher quality care for Medicare beneficiaries, and by turn, all patients.”
World MRSA Awareness Month, a national grassroots effort, was declared and launched by the MRSA Survivors Network in January 2009. The objective of the campaign is to substantially raise global awareness and provide an opportunity for the community and the healthcare industry to work together to eradicate MRSA.
For more information about IPRO’s MRSA Project, please visit https://ipro.org/index/9sow-mrsa
This material was prepared by IPRO, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for New York State, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS policy. 9SOW-NY-THM6.2-09-38