Nottingham University Hospitals - NHS Trust

INTRANET

MRSA
4 cases since April 2011

This is better than the agreed position of 8 cases at this point in the year.

C difficile infections
82 cases since April 2011

This is better than the agreed position of 106 cases at this point in the year.

Clean your hands

What is MRSA screening?

MRSA screening is performed to identify patients who might be carrying MRSA. Screening principally involves swabbing the nose and sometimes taking swabs or other specimens from other parts of the body.

Once the swabs have been taken they are sent to the microbiology laboratory at the QMC campus and the results usually available in 24-48 hrs.

The current screening programme is described below.

Patient group	Screening samples*	Timing of screening
All Emergency Adult admissions	Nose and groin (perineum)	As soon as possible after admission
All adult elective (planned) hospital admissions in all areas of surgery, medicine and gynaecology	Nose and groin (perineum)	Once in the 8 weeks before admission (ideally 2-4 weeks before) if possible, otherwise on admission
Maternity patients having a Caesarean section	Nose and groin (perineum)	Once in the 8 weeks before expected delivery (ideally 2-4 weeks before) if possible, otherwise on admission
Adult patients attending for planned day-case procedures except the following categories: Day-case ophthalmology Day-case dental Day-case endoscopy, bronchoscopy, cystoscopy Day-case minor dermatology Pain clinic patients	Nose	Once in the 8 weeks before attendance if possible, otherwise on attendance. For patients attending regularly over the course of several months, screening will be done once per month.
Children admitted, who have a higher probability of carrying MRSA. This includes: Patients who have previously had MRSA Patients transferred from another NHS Trust, Private Hospital or residential care Patients who had been re-admitted within three months of a previous in-patient stay	Nose and groin (perineum)	As soon as possible after admission
In-patients on designated high-risk units including intensive care units, those who have been in hospital for more than three weeks, and renal patients on regular dialysis	Various	Weekly or monthly

*In some patients with wounds, catheters or lines, additional samples or swabs may be taken.

This screening programme is kept under regular review.

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