January 13, 2010—The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) has released a report on MRSA infections in California hospitals. “MRSA Infections in California Hospital Patients, 1999 to 2007” is the second in the Health Facts series reporting on healthcare in California.
The report uses OSHPD’s hospital patient discharge data to describe trends and patterns related to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection among California hospital patients, 1999-2007. The percent of S. aureus infection cases that were resistant to antibiotic treatment are shown in relation to patients’ ages, race/ethnicity, and whether they came to the hospital from home or from another healthcare setting. It also compares resistant (MRSA) and non-resistant cases in terms of their hospital costs, hospital length of stay, and mortality rates.
According to coverage of the report from ISSA, the potentially fatal staph infections have changed dramatically over the last decade, affecting different groups of people and often originating outside hospitals. The number of MRSA-infected patients at hospitals across the state grew from about 13,000 in 1999 to some 52,000 cases in 2007.
Although seniors were most often infected in the past, the cases of children with MRSA rose from 188 in 1999 to 3,315 in 2007, and the number of infected adults younger than 65 increased more than sixfold during that time.
