Finding a suitable nursing home for an older loved one is an arduous and time-consuming process. Nursing homes can be the best fit for an elderly family member’s care, but fears of elder abuse, medical mistakes, and the recent problem of MRSA infections make the choice even more difficult. Very difficult.
First, what is MRSA? MRSA is well known as a deadly problem for hospitalized people with open wounds or those recovering from surgery. This type of MRSA is known as hospital-acquired MRSA.
A new study from the University of California, Irvine shows that the vast majority of surveyed nursing homes tested positive for the drug-resistant MRSA bacteria. Researchers surveyed 22 facilities and found 20 to have strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is the bacterial strain that no longer responds to the antibiotics used to treat staph infections. Once it gets going, it’s a beast of a task to fight it off. What we now know – and suspected all along – is that nursing home patients are particularly at risk, even more so than other patients of the same age who are not in nursing homes.