Infection Control

[stephanie283]

A classmate and I are studying for a test and we came across a question where we are stuck because I say one thing and she says another can someone please help us!

QUESTION: If I worked at the hospital and i only had one private room available to whom should I give it to? A person with AIDS or a person with Clostridium difficile

I know both patientS should be placed in a private room but i also know that if private rooms are not available, patients with Clostridium difficile can be placed in rooms (cohorted) with other patients with Clostridium difficile infection. Yet my classmate says otherwise.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Is the patient with AIDS actively immune compromised? Do they have any comorbid sicknesses such as PCP? How sick is the c-diff patient and are they incontinent? Have you reviewed the CDC website for isolation recommendations? Are either under active treatment?

[Jolie, BSN]

I believe the answer lies not in what is ideal for the patients in your question, but in what is safest for their potential roommates.

While a private room may be ideal for a patient with HIV, reality is that s/he poses no risk of transmission to a roommate. HIV patients can be safely roomed with non-HIV patients without risk of transmission of the virus.

The same can not be said for c diff, which is transmitted by spores.

[mrsboots87]

I would never room an AIDS patient privately purely because of the AIDS. If they were in the end stages and severely immunicompromised then sure. And that would be in order to protect the AIDS patient, not the room mate. But this question doesn't say that. However, C. diff is very contagious and requires isolation precautions. They should definitely always have a private room due to the bathroom situation and having to share one with a room mate. I could see if they were incontinent and not usin a bathroom, then maybe, but clean up could be messy and I just don't like the idea of room sharing with a patient with a spore forming bacteria.