Senator Alquist's “Superbug” Legislation Passes the Senate Floor

Legislation will establish MRSA screening, tracking, and prevention

SACRAMENTO— Legislation by Senator Elaine Alquist (D – San Jose) to help prevent the spread of the “superbug” known as MRSA and other hospital acquired infections passed the Senate on a 30-9 bipartisan vote.

“I am very pleased that the Senate recognized the value of addressing the MRSA and hospital acquired infection public health epidemic,” stated Alquist. “Hospitals and patients need to know where infection hot spots are so that we can protect against potentially dangerous situations.”

A bacterial infection resistant to most common antibiotics, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas) can often look like an infected bug bite or scratch but left untreated, it can turn deadly or severely debilitating resulting in paralysis. In many cases, recovery can take several months and require IV antibiotics.
Senator Alquist’s legislation, SB 1058, has six major components:

* Infection Control Procedures – Requiring hospitals to implement procedures for identifying patients who are infected with MRSA such as detecting MRSA hotspots inside a hospital such as an ICU;

* Screening – Requiring hospitals to screen high-risk patients upon admission for MRSA so that other patients are protected;

* Enhanced Infection Prevention Protocols -- Requiring hospitals to follow enhanced protocols to protect against the spread of MRSA and other hospital acquired infections such as cleaning and disinfecting, among other items, all televisions, telephones, bedding, elevators, meeting rooms, glucometers, gurneys, feeding pumps, and cardiac monitors;

* Reporting – Requiring hospitals to report MRSA and other infection data to the state Department of Public Health (DPH);

* Public Disclosure – Requiring DPH, by 2011, to begin publishing infection data on its website; and

* Infection Control Staffing – Requiring hospitals to employ one infection control professional for every 100 licensed beds.

“People who go to the hospital should be safe from the threat of infection and today they are not,” Alquist added.
Hospital acquired infections have increased dramatically in recent years. Since the mid-1970s, there has been a 30-fold increase in MRSA in our hospitals. Staph-related deaths nationally, once a rarity, are approaching 20,000 annually, more than the number of AIDS deaths every year, and this number grows every year. Some 95,000 cases of serious MRSA infections are reported annually.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that every year two million patients contract a hospital acquired infection while being treated for something else, and almost 100,000 die every year from these infections.Visit Senators site

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