1. Stopping the Spread of Bacterial
Infections in Nursing Homes
By Yosef Meystel

2. Introduction
• President of YAM Management of Skokie, Illinois, Yosef
Meystel manages the operations of 16 nursing homes. In
addition to handling day-to-day tasks, Yosef Meystel is
responsible for compliance and finance functions.
One of the main focuses of the state of Illinois is
reducing the number of bacterial infections in nursing
homes. Much like hospitals, nursing homes are a place
where individuals with various illnesses are in one
location. Because this increases risk for infection, the
Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) created the
“health care associated infections” initiative.

3. About CRE infections
• The focus of the initiative is to track carbapenem-
resistant Enterobacteriasceae (CRE) infections.
CREs refer to a family of bacteria mainly found in
the digestive system that are resistant to typical
antibiotics. Last year, IDPH began working with
hundreds of hospitals throughout the state to better
track and understand CRE infections using a new
registry. This year, the IDPH will coordinate a
statewide effort to improve communication between
facilities and help them develop practices to stop
these infections from spreading.