Facility-Level CRE Prevention
Surveillance
Healthcare facilities should be aware of
whether or not CRE have been isolated
from patients admitted to their facility. In
addition, facilities should know whether
or not their laboratories have the capacity
to perform carbapenemase testing and
CRE screening tests. If these tests are not
available, facilities should identify outside
laboratories that can perform this testing
when needed.
Facilities should consider performing
ongoing evaluations to quantify the
incidence of CRE organisms from clinical
specimens, such as reviewing archived
laboratory results to determine the number
and/or proportion of Enterobacteriaceae
that are CRE over a pre-specified time
period (e.g., 6 to 12 months). In addition,
facilities should consider collecting
information on the basic epidemiology of
patients colonized or infected with these
organisms in order to understand common
characteristics of these individuals. This
might include patient demographics, dates
of admission, outcomes, medications, and
common exposures (e.g., wards, surgery,
procedures, transfer from other healthcare
facilities, etc.)