MRSA colonization

[Mammy1111]

Could any of you who work in LTC facilities tell me what perecentage of your residents have either MRSA infection or colonization. I am working with a prevalence test in Maine and trying to find numbers for comparison.

Thanks in advance.

[noc4senuf]

one out of 100.

[Mammy1111]

Have your residents been screened or was the one patient diagnosed in a hospital?

[noc4senuf]

Came w/ the dx from the hospital. Is a TCU resident so, will be discharging after rehab.

[susanthomas1954]

The hospitals here have a cool new trick up their sleeves. They test everyone for MRSA of the nares on admission, so........every hospital patient who shows MRSA positive in a toe wound had MRSA on admission. This is to protect the hospital from being in trouble for hospital aquired MRSA. So, our feeder hospitals send most of our MRSA in the door colonized. We almost never develop a MRSA in house. C-diff is another story..........

[Mammy1111]

I certainly hope the hospital is screening for MRSA for the purpose of prevention rather than escaping blame. If patients are screened on hospital admission they can be isolated or cohorted and contact precautions used. They can also use the results in order to treat the colonization preoperatively and to prescribe the appropriate preoperative antibiotic for colonized patients. So that simple screening is cheap but is a very valuable tool for the prevention of new infections and colonizations.

I would be absolutely thrilled to hear that my local hospital was screening all new admissions. It would mean they are finally taking MRSA seriously.

I think unless a new LTC patient is known MRSA positive, all new residents coming in should be screened too...for the benefit of the patient and everyone surrounding them.