contact isolation for hemolytic staph?

6 Posts

I am curious to see what other hospitals' policies are regarding hemolytic staph infections and contact isolation. Way back when I was still on orientation I thought that if a preliminary culture came back as hemolytic staph the patient remains on contact isolation because MRSA is a type of hemolytic staph and it could turn out to be MRSA. Recently, however, I keep taking patients who have been taken off of precautions because the consensus seems to be that they don't have to be on contact if it's "just" hemolytic staph. We have an Infection Control Nurse and she is the one validating this practice. The problem is, twice now, when the final result comes back it ends up being MRSA! So the patient is on isolation to rule out MRSA then they are taken off and for two days people are taking care of them without proper PPE.

My understanding was you don't necessarily have to put a patient on contact precaution for hemolytic staph but if they are already on isolation you leave them that way until the final result.