From the inception of antibiotic therapy, scientists have warned that its use could cause the development of resistant bacterial strains. In 1945, as the discovery of penicillin was hailed as a “magic bullet” in medicine’s arsenal against disease, however the discoverer of this first antibiotic, Alexander Fleming, warned that the misuse of this wonder drug would foster resistance to it (Sheff, 2001). In 1941, almost every strain of Staphylococcus aureus was treatable with penicillin; however, by 1950, 60 percent of hospital-acquired Staphylococcus aureus infection was resistant to this drug.
As this shows, Fleming’s prediction has been alarmingly prophetic (Sheff, 2001). According to Houghton (2006), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2 million patients develop an infection that was acquired from receiving healthcare in the US annually. The CDC also indicates that between 90,000 to 100,000 patients die each year as a result of a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). This is an extensive problem that affects healthcare worldwide. Conceptual Framework
Due to the prevalence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) in HAIs, the Department of Health has issued guidelines in order to combat this disease. However, careful analysis of these guidelines reveals the lack of focus on evaluating procedures that would assess how well hospitals are able to comply with the said guidelines. As such, the research seeks to answer this concern by making a comparative study of Assir Central Hospital and Khamis Mushait Hospital and how well are they able to evaluate their procedures.
Such is relevant in order to obtain a picture of how well hospitals are functioning at present and how they are able to comply with the policies that are set forth by DH. In addition with this, the identification of the resistance of MSRA and VRE from vancomycin as based on the data to be gathered from the hospitals will be significantly related to the latter’s effectiveness. As such, the research has the following framework: