Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Blood Infections

What Are We Measuring?

Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) is a common bacterium that is present in the nose or on the skin of about one quarter of healthy adults at any given time. Though generally harmless, Staph occasionally causes infections that are treated with antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a strain of Staph that is resistant to certain antibiotics, which can make MRSA infections more difficult to treat. MRSA can cause serious bloodstream infections and is often spread through direct contact with an infection or contaminated hands.

Publicly reported hospital-onset MRSA events are identified through lab testing collected four or more days after inpatient admission.

How Are We Performing?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports MRSA using a standardized infection ratio (SIR). The standardized infection ratio is a risk-adjusted summary measure that compares the observed number of infections to the predicted number of infections during a selected time period. The measure takes into account risk factors that may impact the number of infections at a facility, including facility size, the types of patients treated and kinds of procedures performed.

SIRs below one indicate that the observed number of infections during the measured period was lower than would be expected, while values above one indicate that the observed number of infections was higher than expected.