CDC Warns Community-acquired MRSA Threat is Growing

Community-acquired MRSA in outpatient settings is an increasing concern, the report said, because the infections spread to inpatients through hospital staff interaction "or use of similar hospital resources, such as surgical rooms."

The finding is especially worrisome because increasingly, hospital care is shifting from inpatient to outpatient settings, with outpatients outnumbering inpatients 3 to 1. Also, federal payers will no longer reimburse providers for infections they are deemed to have caused.

The report, by Eili Klein, David L. Smith, and Ramanan Laxminarayan, said CA-MRSA "has become a major problem in US hospitals already dealing with high levels" of hospital-acquired staph infections. Klein and Laxminarayan are affiliated with Princeton University. Smith is from the University of Florida at Gainesville, and all three are associated with Resources for the Future, Washington, DC.

Understanding these trends can "help hospital administrators and policy makers make infection control investments to address the role that large influxes of outpatients with CA-MRSA infections may play with regard to overall MRSA infection rates in the hospital."