Annette Jurke, Inka Daniels-Haardt, Welmoed Silvis, Matthijs S. Berends, Corinna Glasner, Karsten Becker, Robin Köck and Alex W. Friedrich

Introduction Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of healthcare-associated infections. Aim We describe MRSA colonisation/infection and bacteraemia rate trends in Dutch–German border region hospitals (NL–DE-BRH) in 2012–16. Methods All 42 NL–DE BRH (8 NL-BRH, 34 DE-BRH) within the cross-border network EurSafety Health-net provided surveillance data (on average ca 620,000 annual hospital admissions, of these 68.0% in Germany). Guidelines defining risk for MRSA colonisation/infection were reviewed. MRSA-related parameters and healthcare utilisation indicators were derived. Medians over the study period were compared between NL- and DE-BRH. Results Measures for MRSA cases were similar in both countries, however defining patients at risk for MRSA differed. The rate of nasopharyngeal MRSA screening swabs was 14 times higher in DE-BRH than in NL-BRH (42.3 vs 3.0/100 inpatients; p …