Mixture patients on ortho

[Jenn-RN2008]

Can anyone tell me if your facility allows infected surgical patients to be on the same unit as non infected surgery patients? I work with a doctor that swears no other hospital in the United States allows dirty patients to be on the same unit as clean patients.

[SaoirseRN]

What do you mean by "infected" or "dirty"? If you mean colonized with MRSA, etc, then I can tell you that in smaller facilities, there simply isn't a way to accommodate MRSA+ patients with their own floors. They are either in private rooms or cohorted in a semi-private with another MRSA+ patient.

[Jenn-RN2008]

Yes that is exactly what I mean whether its MRSA or any other bacteria. This doctor has made nurses leave the unit to change clothes and shower because they had been in an infected patients room. I feel that his demands are ridiculous and he ripped me a new on the other day because we had placed an infected knee patented in a room next door to a post op hip patient.

[nyteshade, BSN]

I'm pretty sure your hospital has a policy on this to show the physician. It's been my experience that docs are not up to speed on things like infection control. I've worked at many hospitals that have MRSA/VRE/insert whatever infection here patients on the same unit as colonized/infected patients. That doctor is full of it.

Wait...don't you guys use isolation precautions?

[DalekRN]

That doctor is full of it.

Wait...don't you guys use isolation precautions?

^^^this. We place infected post csection patients right next to fresh surgicals and sections... Even in the same assignment.

[Jenn-RN2008]

Yes f course we use isolation precautions but that isn't what matters to this doc.

[RainMom]

All the time. Like PP said, there wouldn't be a room or a separate unit to keep iso pts. Also, @my hosp, my ortho floor is the only floor with all private rooms so sometimes we get iso general med pts when the other floors don't have a private room available. In this case, we do have a prominent surgeon who dislikes having "dirty med pts" on the floor with his orthos, regardless if iso or not.

[bresarus]

In my hopsital ortho is a "clean" floor. No patients with any type of bacteria or virus is allowed on the floor. If they develop it they are transfered to a med surg floor.

[~PedsRN~, BSN, RN]

I work on an Ortho floor (we have several specialties on my floor, Ortho is one of them) in a Children's hospital. We often have children who are patients of Ortho who are also on contact precautions. We I&D stuff all the time. Septic hips, septic knees. Ortho is not in and of itself a "clean" specialty. I mean, I guess if we are talking strictly in replacements...? We operate with isolation precautions in place all over my floor. :)

[benmca13]

The hospital I work for does the same thing. Our director does her best to convince staffing to send all flu/pneumo/MRSA pts to the medical floor, but it's hard. But yes, we do the same thing, though they are never put in the same room (unless it's an infected joint that required I&D or something).