Data from 2006 to 2013 Show Infections in Nursing Homes on the Rise

​In 2013, an estimated 1.13 to 2.68 million nursing home residents had at least one of six infections measured—urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia, multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections, septicemia, viral hepatitis, and wound infections—according to a study published in the July 2017 issue of JAMDA. Data from the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 (2006 to 2010) and 3.0 (2011 to 2013) showed increasing prevalence of viral hepatitis over the entire study period, mostly from outbreaks associated with hepatitis B virus through resident-to-resident transmission and breaches in infection control guidelines, but also from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's expanded screening recommendations. Conversely, prevalence of UTIs decreased as a result of a 5.1% to 5.5% decrease in catheter use between 2006 and 2013, despite a 0.046% increase in UTI diagnoses per year between 2006 and 2010.