NYT editorial

Yesterday the NYT has an editorial titled "Another Very Scary Germ" calling for "the need for an aggressive, multipronged approach to curb the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria."
We applaud the call for a multi-pronged approach and even though we are working specifically on MRSA, the sites that are using PD for MRSA prevention are seeing declines in other antibiotic-resistant organisms as well, such as VRE and C-Diff.

See our response to the editorial below:

Re "Another Very Scary Germ" (editorial, Nov. 20):"

The New York Times is absolutely right in advocating an aggressive, multipronged approach to curb the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, especially in our nation's health care institutions.

One proven approach is called Positive Deviance. The core of PD's success is the acknowledgement that responsibility for fighting resistant microbes belongs to individuals at all levels, from the custodial staff to the head of cardiology.

Plexus Institute, with funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is working with hospitals across the country to test and document the results of PD. Participating hospitals, such as Billings Clinic in Montana, Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins and Philadelphia's Albert Einstein Medical Center, are already experiencing double-digit declines in infections as a result of using PD and engaging everyone in the healthcare environment.

Only by working together, staying true to proven techniques for controlling infections and embracing new ones, can we win this life and death battle.