University of Virginia Health System

How to Join PPP

Mission: To greatly reduce the number of patients colonized or infected with methicillin resistant Staph. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE) by identifying and isolating patients with these organisms.

Guiding Principles:

1. Spread accounts for a large proportion of patients with resistant organisms.
   
2. The vast majority of colonized patients go unrecognized and therefore unisolated in the absence of an active surveillance-culturing program.
   
3. CDC guidelines call for barrier precautions for patients colonized or infected with epidemiologically important organisms such as VRE and MRSA.

Criteria for Inclusion in the Partnership:

1. A desire to control the problem of antibiotic resistance.
   
2. Establishment of an active, ongoing surveillance-culturing program to identify colonized patients (exact program will vary by facility - see attached algorithms).
   
3. Isolation of patients identified as colonized/infected.
   
4. Providing summaries of culture results to the Partnership for analysis.

Benefits of Inclusion in the Partnership:

1. Two years' supply of alcohol hand sanitizer free of charge.
   
2. Reduced spread of antibiotic resistant organisms in your facility.
   
3. Decreased numbers of clinical infections with antibiotic resistant organisms.
   
4. Decreased morbidity and mortality from antibiotic resistant infections.

How to join:

Submit a proposal for implementing an active surveillance program for identifying patients with MRSA and/or VRE based upon the enclosed materials to the Problem Pathogen Partnership: