Many policymakers have called for universal, hospital-based screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a means of potentially preventing hospital acquired infections. While some states have gone so far as to enact laws requiring MRSA screening upon admission, new research shows that such screening is too costly for hospitals. “Screening for MRSA is becoming an accepted weapon against the spread of these antibiotic-resistant infections, but little thought has been given to how a hospital would actually implement such a program,” said James McKinnell, M.D., from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, in a statement. McKinnell and colleagues presented two abstracts at the ID Week conference (Oct. 7-12, 2014; Philadelphia). In the first study the researchers modeled the economic impact for a hospital to start universal MRSA screening for all inpatients and contact precautions for MRSA carriers. The models incorporated several screening strategies including the addition of non-nares MRSA screening and comparison of chromatogenic agar versus PCR-based screening. The researchers found the cost of universal MRSA screening and contact precautions outweighed the projected benefits generated by preventing MRSA-related infections, resulting in a cost of $103,000 per 10,000 admissions. More MRSA-colonized patients were identified with non-nares screening and PCR-based testing. This averted […]