Screening every patient for potentially deadly staphylococcus infections can cut their spread inside hospitals by up to 70 percent, but federal health officials have not endorsed the disease-fighting tactic.
“It?s effective. We believe in it, and we?ve been doing it for years,” said nurse Polly Ristaino, infection control coordinator with St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, where universal screening is practiced in the intensive care unit. “We?re considering expanding it to other units in our hospital.”
The idea gained ground this week with an announcement by the Veterans Affairs Administration that its 150 hospitals nationwide would begin screening.
Drug-resistant staph infections in the Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs? surgical care unit dropped more than 70 percent after instituting universal screening in 2001, said Dr. Robert Muder, infectious diseases director.
Pittsburgh VA guidelines now require all patients to get their noses swabbed for the bacteria upon admission and discharge. Those with the bug are isolated from other patients and treated by health care workers in gowns and gloves. Workers disinfect even noninvasive instruments like blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes after contact with these patients.
But isolation can be costly, said Dr. Rich Boehler, chief medical officer for St. Joseph. “Most patients would not necessarily contract a serious illness. The challenge is, you don?t necessarily know who would and who wouldn?t,” he said.
Multiple-resistant staphylococcus aureus is a type of bacteria that does not respond to most common antibiotics, including methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, staph infections occur most frequently in hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers among those with weakened immune systems.
Infections can range from open boils to pneumonia, flesh-eating bacteria and a blood condition called sepsis. According to the CDC, it kills 17,000 Americans a year.
Other hospitals use myriad strategies to fight the bug. Some screen everyone; some test high-risk patients; others screen just those in high-risk units like intensive care.
“Having different hospitals doing it different ways will help us see what works,” said Dr. Harold Standiford, the University of Maryland Medical Center?s infection control chief. “It?s going to be a continual process.”
The CDC suggests screening at-risk patients but did not recommend universal testing.
Associated Press Writer Joann Loviglio contributed to this report.
