Use of a Regional Health Information Exchange to Detect Crossover of Patients with MRSA between Urban Hospitals
- aNorthwestern University, Chicago, IL
- bRegenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis, IN
- cInfection Control Department, Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
- dIndiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN
- Correspondence: Abel N. Kho, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, Division of General Internal Medicine, Affiliated Scientist, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., 676 N. St Clair St, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60611 (e-mail: <abel.kho{at}nmff.org>)
- Received 3 August 2007
- Accepted 23 October 2007
Abstract
Background A significant portion of patients already known to be colonized or infected with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may not be identified at admission by neighboring hospitals.
Methods We utilized data from a Regional Health Information Exchange to assess the frequency that patients known to have MRSA at one healthcare system are admitted to a neighboring healthcare system unaware of their MRSA status. We conducted a retrospective, registry trial from January 1999 through January 2006 involving three healthcare systems in central Indianapolis, representing six hospitals.
Results Over one year, 286 unique patients generated 587 admissions accounting for 4,335 inpatient days where the receiving hospital was not aware of the prior history of MRSA. The patients accounted for an additional 10% of MRSA admissions received by study hospitals over one year and over 3,600 inpatient days without contact isolation.
Conclusions Information exchange could improve timely identification of known MRSA patients within an urban setting.
Footnotes
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↵1 Dr. McDonald is currently at the Lister Hill Center for Biomedical Communication in Bethesda, MD.
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This work was performed at the Regenstrief Institute, Inc and Dr. Kho was supported in part by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (T15 LM007117). The sponsor had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
