In my former role as a critical care nurse in a respiratory intensive care unit, I recall taking care of patients who failed to improve. Work-up after work-up did not lead up to the answer. Then we began hearing about Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, as it is known around the country today. A series of antibiotics was introduced and isolation procedures went into effect. Many patients did not survive this terrible complication, and those who did struggled through a very, very rough time.

Today, it is reported that 2 million patients get bacterial infections from healthcare workers every year. And nearly 100,000 of them die as a result. Dr. Richard Shannon of the University of Pennsylvania argues that those infections and deaths are preventable. NPR shared a story this week on its program Fresh Air, where the show’s host, Terry Gross, interviewed Dr. Shannon on the topic. Take a few minutes to listen to this interview and think about how you can be part of the solution in educating the public on the importance of hand-washing and other simple techniques that can be employed to stop the spread of this super bug. Listen to the interview here.

Dr. Shannon shared what he, as chief of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is doing to address this problem. The first step he and those in his department have put into place is recognizing ownership of the problem and putting a human face on patients who develop infections — versus reporting infections in terms of numbers. This helps all to know that individuals are impacted by what we do and helps all to take action against the spread of hospital-acquired infection. The second step involves observation on his team’s behalf of the staff in intensive care units, the oncology unit and other departments where patients are susceptible to infections, to see where there are breakdowns and defects in care. This allows the team to examine processes and to come up with improvements that can augment care. The third step that Dr. Shannon shared is that, when his team discovers a problem, the team takes the time to examine the problem and get to the root cause of the problem the same day; they don’t wait for a committee meeting to review the issues. This helps those involved learn what happened and enables them to make adjustments in care. This step has also allowed a frank discussion with the patient and the patient’s family as to what the complication is, and it assures them that the problem that caused the setback has been identified and that steps are being put into place to prevent it in the future. These steps help everyone learn and be more aware of what they are doing in the course of care. As a result, the hospital staff is working as a unified presence to improve processes, and there has been a significant decrease in infection rates.

If you work in a hospital, a nursing home or other healthcare facility, share what your facility is doing to combat MRSA. E-mail me at allewellyn@dorlandhealth.com and I will post your story in next week’s issue of Across My Desk.

Have a great week!

Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN
Editor-in-Chief of Across My Desk, Case in Point magazine, and the Case Management Resource Guide
allewellyn@dorlandhealth.com