CCME Supports MRSA Awareness Month

Cary, NC – The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (CCME) is pleased to announce its support of MRSA Awareness Month in October to heighten awareness of how MRSA is transmitted and how to protect ourselves and others.

MRSA stands for Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus. These infections are resistant to many antibiotics and can be hard to treat. Nationally, MRSA infections kill thousands of people each year and increase health care costs by more than $2.5 billion.

As part of its quality improvement workwith health care facilities in North and South Carolina,CCME is working to reduce the number of MRSA infections through its contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“Nationally, invasive MRSA infections occur in approximately 94,000 persons each year, resulting in about 19,000 deaths each year,” said Melinda Postal, CCME director of communications. “At CCME, we are working closely with hospitals across the Carolinas to reduce the incidence and transmission of MRSA in our two states.”

Paul E. McGann, MD, CMS deputy chief medical officer said, “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. By working with hospitals across the state, Quality Improvement Organizations [such as CCME] can serve as ‘go-to’ resources for slowing—and hopefully one day, stopping—the spread of this debilitating complication of treatment.”

QIOs are working as part of CMS’ National Patient Safety Initiative to reduce patient harm using proven strategies that improve patient safety. “Reducing the rates of hospital-acquired MRSA is one of the key areas where we, as a health care community, can come together and implement common-sense solutions to reduce or eliminate causes of patient harm that result from patients’ interactions with the health care system, rather than from other causes,” Dr. McGann said. “Reducing MRSA rates in health care facilities will by definition increase the value of health care services as it produces higher quality care for Medicare beneficiaries, and by turn, all patients.”

Health care organizations and community groups are encouraged to participate in MRSA Awareness Month by organizing an event or presentation in their community to help raise awareness of MRSA and how to prevent it. For more information, please visit www.worldmrsaday.org.

For more information about the work of CCME in the Carolinas, visit www.thecarolinascenter.org.