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Fight MRSA! Alliance

 

The Fight MRSA! Alliance is a first-of-its-kind collaborative of Southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals, city and county public health departments, nursing homes, and schools. The Alliance is one of the projects sponsored by the Partnership for Patient Care, partially funded by Independence Blue Cross (IBC), the region’s leading health insurer, and coordinated by the Health Care Improvement Foundation. The Alliance works to develop and execute the most effective techniques to prevent the spread of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylcoccus aureus) bacteria in both health care and community settings. You can contact The Fight MRSA! Alliance by sending an email to fightmrsa@hcifonline.org.

A Coordinating Committee that is co-chaired by Neil Fishman, MD, University of Pennsylvania, and Kathy Lucente, Infection Control Manager, Paoli Hospital/MLHS, provides the overall planning and direction for the collaborative. This leadership group is broadly representative of key stakeholders, including acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, professional infection control societies, and government and community organizations.

The Coordinating Committee determines the Alliance’s objectives and expected outcomes, the appointment of workgroup members, and the review of strategic policies. The Committee also examines ways to coordinate and integrate evidence-based elements of MRSA-related initiatives in which smaller subsets of collaborative members may be participating, such as the IHI 5 Million Lives, the VHA national MRSA initiative, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/CDC MRSA initiative. Consistent with its other patient safety activities, the Health Care Improvement Foundation strives to simultaneously eliminate unnecessary duplication of effort and enable participants in its programs to meet objectives of multiple national and statewide patient safety initiatives.

The Coordinating Committee oversees the activities of four workgroups:

  • Acute Care MRSA Workgroup
  • Community-Acquired MRSA Workgroup
  • Long-Term Care MRSA Workgroup
  • Measurement and Outcomes Workgroup

    Current Projects

     

    Students Fight MRSA Campaign
    Independence Blue Cross, the Health Care Improvement Foundation, and the Franklin Institute are the sponsors of a contest to raise student awareness about the MRSA superbug. Students in grades 3-12 are encouraged to compete for cash prizes by submitting video, audio and graphic designs that educate their peers about this serious health issue. Eligibility, rules and prize information can be found at www.studentsfightmrsa.com.

     

    Acute Care MRSA Survey

    In order to look at current MRSA practices in the region’s acute care facilities, the Measurement & Outcomes Workgroup of the Alliance developed a hospital-focused survey designed for completion by hospitals’ managing Infection Control Practitioners. The survey was completed by 98% of the 47 hospitals in the region to whom it was sent.

    The survey results will be very helpful to the clinical and infection control leaders at regional hospitals by allowing them to compare their respective hospitals’ MRSA practices to those of other facilities in the region. The results will also help guide the actions of the Alliance by identifying regional opportunities for improvement. All survey responses remain anonymous, and survey results have been blinded to facility name. The results of the MRSA survey were presented to attendees at the June 12th MRSA Assembly.


    Long-Term Care MRSA Survey

    In order to assist acute care and long-term care facilities improve their communication regarding Multi-Drug Resistance Organisms (MDROs) -- and MRSA in particular -- as well as to comply with Pennsylvania’s Act 52, the current focus of the Long-Term Care Workgroup is the transfer of information for residents being transferred from long-term care facilities to acute care facilities. A brief survey related to patient information on transfer to acute care facilities was sent to 179 nursing homes in the region, with the end goal of creating a standardized transfer form that will be offered for use by all Philadelphia regional long-term care facilities.
     

    A brief survey related to patient information on transfer to acute care facilities was sent to 179 nursing homes in the region, with the end goal of creating a standardized transfer form that will be offered for use by all Philadelphia regional long-term care facilities