The best hospital practices for controlling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: on the cutting edge.

Objective: A performance improvement task force of Rhode Island infection control professionals was created to develop an epidemiologic model of statewide consistent infection control practices that could reduce the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Design: This model encompasses screening protocols, isolation techniques, methods of cohorting positive patients, decolonization issues, postexposure follow-up, microbiology procedures, and standardized surveillance methodologies. These "best practice guidelines" include three categories of recommendations that define priority levels based on the availability of scientific data.

Preventing the spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in a long-term care facility.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that infection control practices can prevent the spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) to residents of a long-term care facility (LCF) from an affiliated acute care facility with a high endemic rate of colonization.

Design: Point prevalence study of the rate of rectal colonization.

Setting: A state-supported veterans nursing home and an acute care veterans hospital.