Bacteria Outbreak Closes Hospital Units

[huladancer, ADN, BSN, MSN]

LOS ANGELES Dec 16, 2006 (AP)-- A hospital has closed its neonatal and pediatrics intensive care units to new admissions after a potentially fatal bacterium sickened seven children, including an infant who may have died from the infection, officials said.

For the full story, check

ABC News: Bacteria Outbreak Closes Hospital Units

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

The article stated that they think the bacteria was passed around on a a laryngoscope blade that might not have been properly cleaned.

We don't sterilize our handles since they don't touch the babies - we will use antibacterial agents to clean them (calvicide) between uses. But the blades themselves??? Sent to materials management to be sterilized between each and every use.

Is this not the normal practice?

[KatrinaPM]

Gross! I should think so!

[Jarnaes]

Sterilizing the blades after use is the standard of care. Obviously someone cut some corners somewhere in the process... Sad case.

[PremieOne]

Thank you for providing this news link. I think we are going to see more incidents like yhis in the future. We just got back an infant from a tertiary children's hospital collonized with MRSA.

The infant is in our isolation room till discharge. The ifant shows no signs of illness but is now considered a carrier.

As for our laryngoscope blades - we soak them in an atibaterial solution for 30 min and wipe the handle down the same solution. We so far have not had any infections from this practice. But maybe we need to revisit our policy and procedure manual and update it on the way we sterilize this equipment.

Nosocomial infections are running rampart in many hospitals. As this article states and those who have already provided feedback on this article - many places try to cut corners to save time and money at the expense of the lives of the public and patient.

Thanks again for the article link. Happy Holidays

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Beleive it or not some hospitals only use cydex (sp) to clean their blades instead of sending them to central supply.

swtooth

[Jolie, BSN]

Haven't previous pseudomonas outbreaks in the NICU been tied to bacterial growth in bottles of hand lotion used by the staff? I wonder if this could explain the contamination of the laryngoscope blade, even if it HAD been properly sterilized.

We sent ours to sterile processing, but did not then treat the blade as truly sterile equipment during an intubation. It was attached to the handle using clean technique. Perhaps a staff member who had applied lotion to his/her hands inadvertently contaminated the laryngoscope handle and/or blade.

So sad, and another example of the seemingly endless avenues of potential contamination.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

Haven't previous pseudomonas outbreaks in the NICU been tied to bacterial growth in bottles of hand lotion used by the staff? I wonder if this could explain the contamination of the laryngoscope blade, even if it HAD been properly sterilized.

We sent ours to sterile processing, but did not then treat the blade as truly sterile equipment during an intubation. It was attached to the handle using clean technique. Perhaps a staff member who had applied lotion to his/her hands inadvertently contaminated the laryngoscope handle and/or blade.

So sad, and another example of the seemingly endless avenues of potential contamination.

That's a really good point. We don't treat ours as sterile either, only clean after we open up the package. We try not to let the blade or the ETT touch anything on the baby's bed or bedside counter, but our hands are usually all over the thing. I know that pseudomonas often hangs out in wet areas like sinks, so maybe even washing our hands well with antibacterial soap isn't even enough if it's in the water itself? :uhoh21: Yikes!

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

I believe that one of the units in the past, it was tied to the vents. We all have gloves on, even when we handle the blades and handles. But, the articles points out that even a few kids in the PICU were involved, so the source may be the laryngoscope blades, but where is the contamination coming from? Idon't think they would be sharing lotion between floors. Intubation is not a sterile procedure though, so to change the procedure globally would have to come thru the CDC.

We had a huge outbreak of pseudo a few year ago and it was tied to the screen filtery things in the sink faucets. We took them out and don't use them anymore and haven't had a serious outbreak since then.

[huladancer, ADN, BSN, MSN]

I was watching the local news today and it was reported that a second baby has died from the nosocomial infection. Tha family has stated that they are considering suing the hospital.

ABC News: Bacteria Kills 2nd Baby in LA Hospital

For those of you Spanish readers:

Padres de bebes muertos en hospital de L.A. consideran demandar a hospital | terra

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

We send the whole thing down to sterile supply, but then when they come back up, we open the package, put in new batteries, check the light, and tape a suction cath to the top of the blade before locking it in the intubation supply box. We'd had some problems with nonfunctioning/unfindable laryngoscopes, so I guess it was decided that preparation trumps sterility.