State legislators send MRSA-screening bill to governor

By Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong

Seattle Times staff reporters

Washington hospitals must screen high-risk patients for a potentially deadly germ called MRSA under a proposed law that passed the state Senate unanimously on Monday and now awaits the governor's signature.

Washington is poised to join four other states that have undertaken the extraordinary legal action to mandate how hospitals protect vulnerable patients from MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

"People are dying, and we have to take action. I think that's why you're seeing unanimous votes in the House and the Senate," said the legislation's chief sponsor, Rep. Thomas Campbell, R-Roy.

The bill, ESHB 1123, which passed the House 97-0 on March 9, was approved by the Senate 45-0.

Campbell's measure was spurred by "Culture of Resistance," a Seattle Times investigation published in November that showed how hospitals often have ignored steps to control MRSA and have adopted a haphazard array of infection-control measures.

In the first comprehensive tracking of the antibiotic-resistant germ, The Times found the number of hospitalized Washington patients infected with MRSA escalated over a decade from 141 a year to 4,723 in 2007.

Screening is painless and inexpensive. A nasal swab costs about $20. Similar tests are mandated in California, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The proposed law would require hospitals to adopt a MRSA screening policy by Jan. 1, 2010. Hospitals would be allowed flexibility, but adult or pediatric intensive-care patients would have to be screened within the first 24 hours. Additionally, hospitals would have to notify patients of a MRSA diagnosis and provide education on treatment and prevention.

Hospitals also would be required to disclose isolation policies to patients. Some hospitals do not have enough private rooms and routinely pair infected patients with noninfected patients.

Campbell said he plans to introduce legislation this year that would expand screening to elective surgical patients, such as those who undergo cardiac surgery and total hip and knee operations. A majority of Washington hospitals and doctors do not routinely test elective patients.

The Washington State Medical Association, which represents more than 9,000 physicians, opposes screening of elective-surgery patients.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2007 that MRSA infections have become epidemic and kill at least 18,000 people a year, more than AIDS.