MRSA MRSA Me
In his ASCLS session,“MRSA MRSA Me—Things Ain’t What They Used to Be!,” Richard B. (Tom) Thomson, Jr. PhD, D(ABMM), Evanston Hospital-Northshore University Health System, Chicago, encouraged attendees to define the MRSA problem in their facility.
"In spite of intense efforts, there is still no consensus on when and how we do MRSA screens," he said.
He described the time when MRSA came to Evanston Hospital for the first time in October 2001. Four separate infants tested positive for MRSA in the NICU. After they discovered this, they did a nasal culture of all babies and healthcare workers who had worked in the NICU in the past 2 months.
"At one point, we came a blink away from closing the NICU," he said.
They found six workers were MRSA-positive, and additional three babies had the disease.
After this outbreak, the MRSA-positive babies were isolated or cohorted, and they had their own dedicated healthcare workers. Universal gloving was used, and the babies had dedicated supplies and equipment. There were also regular meeting among the NICU, infection control, microbiology and administration.
Additionally, the hospital instituted weekly nasal surveillance cultures.