Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia in Australian public hospitals 2015–16: Australian hospital statistics

Overview Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) is a serious bloodstream infection that may be associated with hospital care. Hospitals aim to have as few cases as possible. The nationally agreed benchmark is no more than 2.0 SAB cases per 10,000 days of patient care for public hospitals in each state and territory. In 2015–16: all jurisdictions had rates below the national benchmark the national rate of SAB in public hospitals was 0.73 cases per 10,000 days of patient care 1,440 cases of SAB were reported 81% of cases were treatable with commonly used antibiotics- methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) cases 19% of cases were antibiotic resistant-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases. Between 2011–12 and 2015–16, rates of SAB decreased from 0.96 cases to 0.73 cases per 10,000 days of patient care