Are meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection targets fair to those with other types of healthcare-associated infection or cost-effective?

The Effect of Market-Based Economic Factors on the Adoption of Orphan Drugs Across Multiple Countries

Orphan drugs are designed to treat rare disease. Multiple countries have approved regulations that support the creation of new orphan drugs. The regulations directly and indirectly affect orphan drug markets and contribute to classifying a country as being more or less market based. A more market-based country is recognized as functioning closest to free market principles, where the actions of supply, demand, and pricing operate with minimal government involvement. However, little information exists on how country market differences affect the adoption of these orphan drugs. This study argues that relationships exist between country market-based economic factors and the adoption of orphan drugs. This research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, drawing on orphan drug adoption of 13 marketed orphan drugs in France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the US. Results show a statistically significant but negative relationship between the degree to which a country is market based and the adoption of orphan drugs. Results suggest that governments and regulators in less market-based countries support market factors that result in a more efficient delivery of orphan drug products to patients with rare diseases.

Use of benchmarking and public reporting for infection control in four high-income countries

Benchmarking of surveillance data for health-care-associated infection (HCAI) has been used for more than three decades to inform prevention strategies and improve patients' safety. In recent years, public reporting of HCAI indicators has been mandated in several countries because of an increasing demand for transparency, although many methodological issues surrounding benchmarking remain unresolved and are highly debated. In this Review, we describe developments in benchmarking and public reporting of HCAI indicators in England, France, Germany, and the USA. Although benchmarking networks in these countries are derived from a common model and use similar methods, approaches to public reporting have been more diverse. The USA and England have predominantly focused on reporting of infection rates, whereas France has put emphasis on process and structure indicators. In Germany, HCAI indicators of individual institutions are treated confidentially and are not disseminated publicly. Although evidence for a direct effect of public reporting of indicators alone on incidence of HCAIs is weak at present, it has been associated with substantial organisational change. An opportunity now exists to learn from the different strategies that have been adopted.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia as a quality indicator for hospital infection control

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the practicality and effectiveness of a new program that made health care-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) a quality indicator at Austin Health.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Roll-out of the program over 9 months and review over 27 months from January 2006. Every episode of SAB at Austin Health was promptly reviewed, and classified as community- or health care-associated and as inpatient- or non-inpatient-related. Feedback was provided to treating clinicians for every SAB episode considered potentially preventable, and education-based interventions were introduced where appropriate.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Episodes of SAB associated with health care at Austin Health per 1000 separations (hospital discharges) per month.

RESULTS

We identified 131 episodes of health care-associated SAB, of which 90 (68.7%) were caused by methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, 96 (73.3%) occurred in inpatients, and 65 (49.6%) were associated with a vascular access device. The health care-associated SAB rate was 1.1 per 1000 separations in the first 9 months, and fell by 55% to 0.51 per 1000 separations in the subsequent 18 months. We estimated that there were 80 fewer SAB episodes (95% CI, 20-140) than expected had the initial rate remained unchanged, a national saving of $1.75 million to Austin Health over 27 months. About 16 hours per month of clinical nurse consultant time was required to maintain the program, representing a 0.1 equivalent full-time position, or a cost of $7000-$9000 per year.

CONCLUSION

Introducing a structured program to investigate all health care-associated SABs, rather than only infections with methicillin-resistant S. aureus, revealed a large under-recognised burden of potentially preventable infections. The program was simple and low-cost, and the rate of health care-associated SAB has fallen significantly since its introduction.

Characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates collected in 2005 and 2006 from patients with invasive disease: a population-based analysis

This study characterizes 1,984 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates collected in 2005 and 2006 from normally sterile sites in patients with invasive MRSA infection. These isolates represent a convenience sample of all invasive MRSA cases reported as part of the Active Bacterial Core surveillance system in eight states in the United States. The majority of isolates were from blood (83.8%), joints (4.1%), and bone (4.2%). Isolates were characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE); SCCmec typing; susceptibility to 15 antimicrobial agents; and PCR analysis of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) to SEH, toxic shock syndrome toxin 1, and Panton-Valentine leukocidin. Thirteen established PFGE types were recognized among these isolates, although USA100 and USA300 predominated, accounting for 53.2% and 31.4% of the isolates, respectively. As expected, isolates from hospital onset cases were predominantly USA100, whereas those from community-associated cases were predominantly USA300. USA100 isolates were diverse (Simpson's discriminatory index [DI] = 0.924); generally positive only for enterotoxin D (74.5%); and resistant to clindamycin (98.6%), erythromycin (99.0%), and levofloxacin (99.6%), in addition to beta-lactam agents. USA300 isolates were less diverse (DI = 0.566), positive for Panton-Valentine leukocidin (96.3%), and resistant to erythromycin (94.1%) and, less commonly, levofloxacin (54.6%), in addition to beta-lactam agents. This collection provides a reference collection of MRSA isolates associated with invasive disease, collected in 2005 and 2006 in the United States, for future comparison and ongoing studies.