Southern California Hospitals Taking Action To Combat Spread of Drug-Resistant 'Superbug'

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently released data showing that more than 350 cases of potentially dangerous drug-resistant bacteria have been reported at several health care facilities in Southern California.

The bacteria — called carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP — spreads through person-to-person contact and is resistant to nearly all antimicrobial agents. Patients in long-term care facilities, people undergoing prolonged hospitalizations and those taking long courses of antibiotics are most susceptible to the infection.

In a California Healthline Special Report by Mina Kim, experts discussed how hospitals are taking steps to combat CRKP and other drug-resistant bacteria.

The Special Report includes comments from:

Julia Hallisy, co-founder of the Empowered Patient Coalition; and
Jim Lott, executive vice president of the HospitalÂ Association of Southern California;
Greg Moran, physician at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (Kim, California Healthline, 4/13).

The complete transcript of this Special Report is available as a PDF.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>Southern California Hospitals Taking Action To Combat Spread of Drug-Resistant ‘Superbug’</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2011-04-13T00:00:00-07:00">
			April 13, 2011		</time>
		</div>
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health <a href="http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/Diseases/Klebsiella.htm">recently released data</a> showing that more than 350 cases of potentially dangerous drug-resistant bacteria have been reported at several health care facilities in Southern California.The bacteria — called carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP — spreads through person-to-person contact and is resistant to nearly all antimicrobial agents. Patients in long-term care facilities, people undergoing prolonged hospitalizations and those taking long courses of antibiotics are most susceptible to the infection.In a California Healthline Special Report by Mina Kim, experts discussed how hospitals are taking steps to combat CRKP and other drug-resistant bacteria.The Special Report includes comments from:<ul><li>Julia Hallisy, co-founder of the Empowered Patient Coalition; and </li><li>Jim Lott, executive vice president of the HospitalÂ Association of Southern California; </li><li>Greg Moran, physician at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (Kim, California Healthline, 4/13).</li></ul>The complete transcript of this Special Report is <a href="https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2011/04/chlspecialreporttranscript041311.pdf">available as a PDF</a>.<ul><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/southern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/southern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/southern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Southern%20California%20Hospitals%20Taking%20Action%20To%20Combat%20Spread%20of%20Drug-Resistant%20%27Superbug%27&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcaliforniahealthline.org%2Fnews%2Fsouthern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug%2F&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/southern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/southern-california-hospitals-taking-action-to-combat-spread-of-drugresistant-superbug/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.

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