This assignment reinforces information in your textbook and concepts presented in this unit.
Imagine you are an administrator of a residential medical facility responsible for preventing nosocomial infections. You are particularly concerned with the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in your facility as you decide if screening incoming patients is worthwhile. One of the many variables you must consider before implementing a screening policy is the effectiveness of the screening tool. Because the screening program will be expensive, you want to make sure the test will accurately provide the information you need to protect staff and residents. A sales representative from a laboratory and diagnostic manufacturing company has provided you the following MRSA study results to persuade you to buy her MRSA screening technology.
- 1,550 inpatients from multiple hospitals in the region were screened for MRSA.
- 50 patients tested positive for MRSA using the rapid nasal swab test you are evaluating.
- 30 of the 50 patients were confirmed by the gold standard MRSA test to have colonized MRSA bacteria
- Of the 1500 patients screened as negative, 10 were diagnosed with MRSA
Please complete both Part A and B below for this assignment.
A. Using the information above, create a 2×2 table to answer the following questions:
- What is the prevalence of the confirmed/diagnosed MRSA cases among the study population?
- What is the sensitivity of the screening test? How is the result interpreted?
- What is the specificity of the screening test? How is the result interpreted?
- What is the predictive value positive of the screening test? How is the result interpreted?
B. Why would you purchase or not purchase the rapid MRSA diagnostic test to screen incoming patients to your facility?
Your 2×2 table and question responses should be submit in a single Word document or Excel spreadsheet.
