Implications of targeted versus universal admission screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage in a London hospital

SummaryUniversal admission screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been performed in England since 2010. We evaluated the predictive performance of a regression model derived from the first year of universal screening for detecting MRSA at hospital admission. If we had used our previous targeted screening policy, 75% fewer patients (21,699 per year) would have been screened. However, this would have identified only ∼55% of all MRSA carriers, 65% of healthcare-associated MRSA strains, and 40% of community-associated strains. Failing to identify ∼45% of patients (262 per year) carrying MRSA at hospital admission may have implications for MRSA control.