Cases of infection with a deadly drug resistant bacteria, known as CRE are on the rise in U.S hospitals.
Cases of infection with a deadly drug resistant bacteria, known as CRE are on the rise in U.S hospitals, according to a report released today by The Center for Disease Control (CDC). CRE is short for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.
Enterobacteriaceae is family of bacteria that also includes many non harmful strains. Carbapenem is family of antibiotics, often referred to as “last resort” antibiotics, that are used to treat severe infections. When these bacteria become resistant to treatment with carbapenems they are known as CRE.
“CRE infections are caused by a family of germs that are a normal part of a person’s healthy digestive system. These germs can cause infections when they get into the bladder, blood, or other areas where germs don’t belong,” the CDC states.
CRE infection rarely affects healthy people. However, risk of infection is a major concern for hospitals and long-term-care facilities. Because, most patients get CRE infections while they are in the hospital, not as an initial reason for hospitalization, CRE is considered a Healthcare-associated Infection (HAI).
Risk of infection is highest among patients “whose care requires devices like ventilators (breathing machines), urinary (bladder) catheters, or intravenous (vein) catheters, and patients who are taking long courses of certain antibiotics,” the report stated.
As many as one half of patients who contract a CRE infection in their bloodstream die as a result.
According to the CDC incidents of CRE infections in U.S hospitals have risen from one percent to four percent over the last ten years.
While this rise is alarming, the CDC report is optimistic. Hospitals that implement CDC guidelines for dealing with CRE have successfully reduced incidences of infection.
“By following CDC guidelines, we can halt CRE infections before they become widespread in hospitals and other medical facilities and potentially spread to otherwise healthy people outside of medical facilities,” the report states.
Prevention
The CDC has some unlikely partners in its effort to raise awareness about and reduce the rates of HAIs: Medicare and private insurance companies.
CRE and other HAIs cost between $28.4 billion and $33.8 billion annually according to the most recent report, released in 2009.
As a part of The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, medicare announced its decision not to pay hospitals for treatment of problems that started after hospitalization if they could have reasonably been prevented. Medicare calls these Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs).
The most common example of a HAC that medicare has cracked down on are bed sores. Bed sores or pressure sores may sound harmless, but can become large wounds that breed infection if they are left untreated. Few patients arrive in the hospital with pressure sores but they often develop if a patient with limited mobility is left laying in bed.
Pressure sores can be easily prevented by turning a patient every two hours. This can be cumbersome for staff, and costly but many hospitals implement very strict preventative procedures after Medicare’s decision.
A second medicare decision in 2008 directly targeted HAI’s, and according to a report in the American Journal of Infection Control, the change, “led to enhanced focus on infection prevention and changes in practice by front-line staff, ” according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
In short, hospitals are more likely to successfully implement the CDC’s guidelines regarding CRE’s in the face of possible financial repercussions.
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