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Press Release

Independence Blue Cross Participates in New Coalition to Fight MRSA Infections

CDC Applauds Innovative Effort That Kicks Off on November 8

Philadelphia, PA - November 8, 2007 - In recent weeks, an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph known as “MRSA” (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria) has burst upon the American consciousness, with headline-grabbing cases in this region and throughout the United States, and a large epidemiological study showing that MRSA kills 19,000 Americans a year.

In southeast Pennsylvania, regional hospitals, public health departments, nursing homes, area schools, and Independence Blue Cross have banded together to form the Fight MRSA! coalition. Its objective: stop the spread of MRSA and make sure that anyone in the region who contracts a MRSA infection receives the most effective medical treatment possible. Fight MRSA! is the first effort in the nation to include such wide regional collaboration to identify, prevent, contain and treat MRSA infections.

“We applaud this alliance’s innovative effort to involve such a broad range of health care and community organizations in the fight against MRSA,” said John Jernigan, MD, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the nation’s leading experts on MRSA.

As Fight MRSA!’s first step in preventing the spread of the potentially deadly infection, Dr. Jernigan and other clinical experts, patient advocates and policy makers will be speaking at the Fight MRSA! Kick-off Assembly on Thursday, November 8 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at Temple University Health System’s Corporate Conference Center, 2450 W. Hunting Park Avenue in Philadelphia.

Approximately 250 clinical, public health and public school leaders from the region will participate in the assembly. Members of the media are invited to attend the presentations of speakers including:

  • John Jernigan, MD, the nation’s leading expert on MRSA, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
  • Michael Bennett, president of the Coalition for Patients’ Rights, whose father contracted MRSA and later died;
  • Jon Lloyd, MD, from the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, where staff successfully reduced MRSA infection rates by 50 percent; and
  • State Senator Ted Erickson, who helped author and secure the passage of legislation to assist in the prevention of health care-associated infections and increase the active surveillance of MRSA infections.

Fight MRSA! is coordinated by The Health Care Improvement Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving patient safety in southeast Pennsylvania. The initiative is part of the Partnership for Patient Care, a three-year patient safety effort developed by the Foundation and Independence Blue Cross (IBC) and funded by area hospitals and IBC. Area hospitals, including Hahnemann University Hospital, and IBC contributed $200,000 to support Fight MRSA!

“MRSA is not just one hospital’s problem,” says Kate Flynn, executive director of The Health Care Improvement Foundation. “It’s a community-wide problem that is in need of a community-wide solution. This partnership is a huge first step toward decreasing the number of MRSA infections in our region.”

Fight MRSA! is chaired by two area clinicians: Neil Fishman, MD, director of the Department of Healthcare Epidemiology and Infection Control at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, chair of the Antimicrobial Resistance Working Group for the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and vice president-elect of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), and Kathy Lucente, RN, infection control manager at Paoli Hospital and president of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

MRSA was first identified in hospitals in 1968, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it remained confined largely to health care settings for decades. That changed in the 1990s, when MRSA began showing up in healthy, non-hospitalized people.

About Fight MRSA!
Fight MRSA! is an alliance of southeast Pennsylvania hospitals, city and county public health departments, nursing homes, schools and the region’s leading health insurer, Independence Blue Cross (IBC). Fight MRSA! works to develop and execute the most effective techniques to prevent the spread of Methicillin-resistant Staphylcoccus aureus bacteria, or MRSA. This first-of-its kind collaborative in the nation is being coordinated by the Partnership for Patient Care with strong support from area hospitals and IBC.

For more information on MRSA, please see IBC’s In the News article about Improving Patient Safety.

About the Partnership for Patient Care
Developed jointly by The Health Care Improvement Foundation and Independence Blue Cross, the Partnership for Patient Care is a three-year, collaborative patient safety effort involving virtually all southeast Pennsylvania hospitals. In its first year in 2006, the partnership focused on reducing health care-associated infections (HAIs) by developing techniques to prevent surgical site and central-line associated blood stream infections and other sources of HAIs. This effort achieved significant improvements in related safety practices in hospitals across the region. In its second year, the partnership is focusing on fighting MRSA. Independence Blue Cross has provided $1.25M to the Partnership for Patient Care, which includes funding for Fight MRSA!

About The Health Care Improvement Foundation
The Health Care Improvement Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that works closely with the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council of The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, IBC, area hospitals and health systems and other stakeholders dedicated to improving patient safety and quality. The Foundation’s mission is to make Greater Philadelphia among the preeminently safe regions in the world to receive health care.

 

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