NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Jill E. McCormick, Director, Marketing & Planning
St. Edward Mercy Health System
Phone: 479-314-6037
Email: jill.mccormick@mercy.net

St. Edward Mercy Receives Community Education Grant

Fort Smith, Ark. – March 5, 2009 - St. Edward Mercy Medical Center has received a $25,000 community education grant from The National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region (NN/LM SCR) for the purpose of education of public health workers, healthcare professionals, school personnel and consumers in the Ft. Smith, Ark.-area about CA-MRSA.

St. Edward Mercy will host an event honoring the awarding of this grant at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11 in The Hennessy Center on the St. Edward Mercy campus.

St. Edward Mercy will use funds from the grant to improve communication between the Arkansas Department of Health, Sebastian County, St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, other area hospitals, clinics, schools and the public by using educational resources from each entity to focus on slowing the spread of CA-MRSA. Healthcare education and introduction to NLM databases will strengthen patient care initiatives by providing better healthcare outcomes, saving healthcare dollars by reducing the number of physician consults, hospital readmissions and recurrence of CA-MRSA infections.

The $25,000 award will be used to purchase computers, laptops, projectors, printer, teaching materials and continuing education for the Arkansas Department of Health, St. Edward Mercy Medical Center and Western Arkansas Education Service Cooperative.

Classes about CA-MRSA will begin in May 2009. To learn more about these classes, call Pat Morris, medical librarian for St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, at 479-314-6520.

CA-MRSA is Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant S. Aureus. The Centers for Disease Control has investigated clusters of CA-MRSA skin infections such as athletes, military recruits, and children. Factors that have been associated with the spread of MRSA skin infections include: close skin-to-skin contact, openings in the skin such as cuts or abrasions, contaminated items and surfaces, crowded living conditions, and poor hygiene. For more information about CA-MRSA, visit www.cdc.gov.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3505 with the Houston Academy of Medicine – Texas Medical Center Library.

More information about this grant will be given at the event plus staff will be available for interviews.-30-