New Jersey § 26:2h-12

§ 26:2h-12.

The Legislature finds and declares that: a. Two million patients in this country become infected after entering hospitals each

year and about 90,000 of those patients die as a result of those infections; b. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common staph infection

which is resistant to powerful antibiotics and which is increasingly prevalent in

health care settings; c. MRSA can survive on cloth and plastic for up to 90 days, and is frequently transmitted

by contaminated hands, clothes and non-invasive instruments, so that the number of

patients who can become infected from even one carrier multiplies dramatically; d. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one

in 20 patients entering a hospital carries MRSA, and reported that MRSA accounted

for 60% of infections in American hospitals in 2004, up from 2% in 1974; e. The annual nationwide cost to treat hospitalized patients infected with MRSA is

estimated to be more than $4 billion; f. These infections are preventable, and recent data support a multi-faceted approach

to successfully combat them, including routine screening, isolation of colonized and

infected patients, strict compliance with hygiene guidelines, and a change in culture

to ensure that infection prevention and control is everyone's job and is a natural

component of care at each patient encounter each day; g. Virtually all published analyses comparing the costs of screening patients upon

admission and adopting effective infection control practices with the costs of caring

for infected patients have concluded that caring for infected patients is much more

expensive; h. Routine screening and isolation of all patients with MRSA in hospitals in Denmark

and Holland have reduced MRSA to 10% of their bacterial infections, and a pilot program

undertaken by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pittsburgh Healthcare System

that reduced MRSA infections in its surgical care unit by 70% was so successful that

all VA health care facilities have been directed to develop and implement similar

approaches to prevent the spread of MRSA in at least one unit, with the goal to apply

successful strategies facility-wide; and i. It is a matter of public health and fiscal policy that patients in New Jersey's

health care facilities receive health care that incorporates these best practices

in infection control, not only to protect their health and lives, but also to ensure

the economic viability of New Jersey's health care institutions.