MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Screening intensive care unit patients for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is cost-neutral at worst, cost effective at best, U.S. researchers say.

John A. Nyman, a health economist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, conducted the study with colleagues at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a 279-bed teaching hospital and outpatient facility.

The study, scheduled to the published in the February issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, found screening ICU patients for MRSA under the most conservative assumptions is cost-neutral if early detection of leads to a reduced rate of infection and transmission within the hospital.

Under optimal assumptions, screening could result in savings of almost $500 per hospital admission, the study says.

"This study presents evidence of the cost savings from implementing a program that targets the ICU population but that has an effect that is hospital-wide," Nyman and colleagues say in a statement.

MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can lead to severe infections, is associated with approximately 19,000 deaths annually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Treating MRSA in hospitalized patients is estimated to cost an estimated $3.2 to 4.2 billion annually.