Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus transmission reduction using Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant problem arising in healthcare, most commonly in large, tertiary-care hospitals, and its spread among patients causes many downstream effects, such as longer lengths of stay for patients, higher costs for hospitals and insurance companies, and in a significant number of cases, fatalities. An agent-based simulation model is developed to investigate the dynamics of MRSA transmission in the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). The simulation model is used to examine the effectiveness of infection control procedures to reduce the spread of infection within the medical center. Specifically, simulation experiments are performed to examine the efficacy of hand hygiene compliance, patient screening, decolonization, patient isolation, patient cohorting, and nurse cohorting on the incidence of MRSA transmission and other relevant metrics. Preliminary testing has produced results comparable to those presented in the literature, specifically those relating to the effects of hand hygiene compliance. Specifically, a health care worker compliance of approximately 30% appears to be a critical value, below which a significant MRSA outbreak occurs and above which the transmission appears to be contained. In addition, hand hygiene compliance displays the law of diminishing returns, as further reduction in transmission requires significant increases in compliance.