[jerzytech]

Good morning everyone! So last night I went to visit my boyfriend's father who is in a well known NY city hospital, and I noticed that his roommate is on contact isolation (I believe its C.Diff, but of course they can't tell me). He is on an infectious disease floor, if that makes any difference, and his nurse told me that unless the pt is resp/droplet isolation they can share a room with a non-contact pt. I also noticed that the tech who checked their vital signs wore the same pair of gloves for both pts!! All she did was wipe down the machine (we do that too). Now I have worked in 2 different hospitals and had clinicals in several others, and I have never seen a contact pt share a room with someone unless it was another contact pt. Just recently at my current job, we even had someone who we found out was positive for C.Diff, and as soon as we found out she was switched to a private isolation room. Has anyone else heard of a contact pt sharing a room with a non-contact pt? I just don't want my boyfriends father to get any more sick, he's been in the hospital too long as it is. Thanks for any input! Enjoy your weekend!!

[nrsang97]

EWWW used the same gloves between patients.

The contact isolation patient needs to be in a private room. I really find that wrong.

[xoemmylouox]

That's disgusting! In a perfect world they absolutely should be in seperate, but as we all know healthcare is far from perfect. He should ask to be in a different room. He might end uo sharing a room with someone else, but at least he won't be exposed to contact "glove sharing". You should also report the person who wasn't changing gloves & washing their hands.

[MoonRN]

Contact Isolation= private room. If you witness an employee not changing gloves between patients again- speak up and be a patient advocate!

[ksilty]

If he was on an ID floor, this may be why the room was semi-private. Perhaps your boyfriend's father had a similar dx? Contact isolation should ideally have a private room, but this may not have been possible. THe hospital depends on the staff to use contact precautions, which were clearly not followed. THe C-diff patient should have had his own BP machine and cuff. THe tech doing the vitals needs to be sent back for some serious remedial training. Look at it this way, having a private room probably wouldn't have made a difference in this case - this ninny would have just walked from the room next door instead of the next bed...... That's really scary... I hope you used that as a "teachable moment" and said something, she deserved big time to be embarrassed.

[jerzytech]

A few things I need to add to maybe make things more clear-this nurse said that in this hospital, "that's just the way its done" (i may have mentioned this, don't remember). So all contact pts are in semi-private rooms, only resp/droplet pts are in private rooms. Also, his dad is currently diagnose with FUO (fever of unknown origin) and has been running a fever. Being that the doctors, after weeks of tests and antibiotics, still don't know whats wrong, it isnt right for him to be at a risk of contracting something else. I should have said something to the tech about the gloves, my fault that I didn't. But if thats "the way things are" in this hospital, do you think its still possible to get this other pt or my boyfriends father moved? Thanks again!

[suzanne4]

C Diff actually requires gowns and gloves for caring for the patient, not just gloves per the CDC, etc.

You can co-hort two patients that have the same bug in the same room, but not one with C Diff and one that does not have it. If he has a poor immune system to start off with, he is set up to get it. We see that all of the time, but they need to be documented as having the same infection.

And the thought that someone is using the same gloves between patients needs to be reported to the facility. That is not something that should be tolerated.

C-diff patients even have a different protocol for cleaning the room before a new patient is placed in there in the first place. This facility should also be reported to the Board of Health for putting others at risk.

[Shopgirl1]

I completely agree with everyone else. Regardless of what the patient has, whether it's VRE, MRSA, C-Diff, or the Flu we only put other patient's with that same bacteria in that other bed, otherwise the room is closed. C-Diff as someone mentioned requires a gown and gloves, in fact they all do, at least that's what we do where I work. (Major metro hospital in Boston)

C-diff especially has spores that spread and can travel further than other bacteria. When we have a patient on C-diff precautions we are required to cal-stat, gown and glove, leave the gown in the room in a dirty linen bastket, then wash our hands and cal-stat afterwards. There are disposable stethoscopes and equipment ect placed in the room.

If I were you I would certianly talk to the manager and get to the bottom of this. Given his dx of FUO, why would any hopsital want to cohort him in a room where they know that other patient has an active infection!?! AND we all know C-Diff, it's definitely not the cleaniest bacteria. I don't know if that other patient is getting up and going to the bathroom as is your boyfriends dad, but it all just seems a little funky to me and that it's only a matter of time before he gets it, just to only complicate matters!! I would definitely advocate for his dad, and let the manager or the charge nurse know regarding that tech!!
Keep us posted!!

[cityhawk]

Not to mention that semi-private room patients share a bathroom.... sharing a bathroom with a C-diff patient if you're not also a C-diff patient.... shudder the thought.

[ranaazha]

No way! If the NCLEX specifies that ALL contact patients should be in private rooms, then I'm pretty certain that's an across the board rule...