types of precaution measures?

[Healthcare102]

If someone presents to the hospital with certain symptoms, since they (healthcare professionals) don't know right away until they run tests what it is, how do they know what kind of precautions to give beforehand?

For example, if a patient comes to the hospital with vomiting and dehydration. It could be a stomach virus which is contact or it could be Ebola which is airborne and until the doctor runs tests he won't know so what does he do in the meantime?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

It may depend on CDC recommendations (Ebola) or facility policy. Many, if not all, healthcare facilities are asking patients if they've been to affected countries in the last 3 weeks; some facilities start with "out of the country", then narrow it down from there. Based on the risk factors, the patient may be placed in isolation before testing is completed. When it comes to such things as MRSA at my facility (not all), any nursing home patient is automatically placed on contact precautions and swabbed for MRSA rapid testing- precautions stopped if rapid test is negative. All ICU patients are tested on admission, but unless from a nursing home only enter precautions if rapid test is positive.

The best way to know how to proceed is to consult your facility's policies.

P.S. Stomach virus isn't contact- it's universal precautions, which should be used for each and every patient. At least, it's not contact at my facility. Are there facilities out there who put GI virus patients in contact isolation?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Uh, Ebola is definitely NOT airborne, it can only be spread by direct contact with infected bodily fluids. Someone who presents with a simple GI virus doesn't have the same symptoms as someone with Ebola. Patients with Ebola have high fevers, someone with Norovirus usually doesn't have a high fever. And if the patient hasn't been to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leonne nor has he been in direct contact with one of the like 4 people in the US who've had ebola and handled their bodily fluids, you can correctly conclude that he doesn't have Ebola and move on.

That said, if infectious tests are sent on the patient, you follow the precautions indicated for a positive result until the results come back negative. For example, if you swab someone for MRSA they go on contact precautions until the results are back.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

If you end up going to nursing school you'll learn quite a bit about the different types of isolation and precautions. Bookmark this to save yourself a lot of trouble: The CDC is your friend.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention