Facilities

Due to the movement of patients throughout the healthcare system, if CRE are a problem in one facility, then typically they are a problem in other facilities in the region as well. Regional approaches to controlling these organisms are important especially when they first are recognized in a region.

Health Care Facilities Should:

• Require and strictly enforce CDC guidance for CRE detection, prevention, tracking, and reporting
• Make sure their lab can accurately identify CRE
• Promote antimicrobial stewardship
• Recognize these organisms as important to patient safety
• Understand their prevalence in the facility and in the region
• Identify colonized and infected patients in the facility and ensure precautions are implemented
• When transferring a patient, require staff to notify the other facility about infections, including CRE.
• Participate in regional and facility-based prevention efforts designed to stop the transmission of these organisms
• Notify health departments of outbreaks
  

Steps Clinicians Should Take

Tools

• 2015: CRE Toolkit Guidance for Control of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

More Resources

• Laboratory protocol: Multiplex Real-Time PCR Detection of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase and New Delhi metallo-β-Lactamse genes