Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) in California Hospitals

California Health and Safety Code section 1288.55(a)(1) requires general acute care hospitals to report all cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) identified in their facilities to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). MRSA BSI data are submitted by hospitals to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). 

CDPH downloads California hospital MRSA BSI data from NHSN and analyzes the data to describe prevention progress in an annual public report of healthcare-associated infections. CDPH publishes annual MRSA BSI data reported by each California hospital in the datasets below. 

The following datasets include the number of MRSA BSI reported by each California hospital in the specified reporting year. Beginning in 2016 for each California hospital, the annual MRSA BSI dataset includes the number of MRSA BSI that were predicted to occur in each hospital based on its specific facility-level characteristics. The observed (reported) number of MRSA BSI are then compared to the predicted number of MRSA BSI in a ratio called the Standardized Infection Ratio or SIR. The SIR is a metric that summarizes an individual hospital’s MRSA BSI prevention progress compared with the national baseline and California state-specific prevention goals. 

The datasets also include the associated 95% confidence intervals for the SIR and statistical interpretation to show whether MRSA BSI incidence was the same (no different), better (lower) or worse (higher) than the national baseline. Another performance measure in this dataset allows for tracking hospital progress in meeting national HAI reduction goals. Hospitals must have an SIR at or below incremental targets each year to be considered on track.

Detailed information about the variables included in each dataset are described in the accompanying data dictionaries for the year of interest.

For more information about the SIR and NHSN’s statistical models that are used to calculate the predicted number of MRSA BSI for each hospital, please review “NHSN’s Guide to the SIR”: https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/ps-analysis-resources/index.html 

For general information about NHSN, surveillance definitions, and reporting requirements for MRSA BSI, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/index.html 

To link the CDPH facility IDs with those from other Departments, including OSHPD, please reference the "Licensed Facility Cross-Walk" Open Data table at: https://data.chhs.ca.gov/dataset/licensed-facility-crosswalk.

For information about healthcare-associated infection prevention progress in California hospitals and statewide prevention goals, please visit: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHCQ/HAI/Pages/HAIreport.aspx

Tags: antibiotic-resistance, antimicrobial-resistance, bacterial-infections, california-department-of-public-health, community-hospitals, cross-infection, delivery-of-health-care, epidemiology, healthcare, hospital-infections, infection-control, methicillin, microbial-antibiotic-resistance, microbial-drug-resistance, mrsa, multi-drug-resistance, multiple-drug-resistance, nosocomial-infections, staphylococcus-aureus, surveillance
Organization: State of California