None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
MRSA is a significant problem for hospital patients, causing increased length of stay and risk of complications. It is spread mainly on the contaminated hands of healthcare workers. Control of MRSA within hospitals still remains controversial, with some insisting that swabbing of all patients and use of special isolation precautions is mandatory for prevention of its spread. We plan to test whether swabbing all patients admitted to the intensive care unit and then putting patients who are found to be positive in single rooms and using gloves and gowns for all contact with these patients is more effective at preventing spread of MRSA from patient to patient than what we currently do ie looking after patients in the general ward, wearing plastic aprons at all times and only using gowns and gloves if we are likely to come into contact with bodily fluids (and not swabbing any patients). We plan to use the most rapid tests available to determine whether someone is carrying MRSA on their body which will give us a result within hours compared with the 2-3 days it currently takes to get a result. We also plan to do an economic evaluation to see if the intervention is worth the extra cost.
Interventions
Intervention group: All patients admitted to the ICU during this time period will undergo active screening with rapid molecular detection of MRSA on admission to, discharge from and twice weekly during the ICU stay. Patients found to be colonised with MRSA will be isolated in a single room (or cohorted with other MRSA colonised patients). Contact precautions (gloves and gowns for all contacts) will also be used for MRSA colonised patients. These precautions will be used for the duration of the p
Intervention group: All patients admitted to the ICU during this time period will undergo active screening with rapid molecular detection of MRSA on admission to, discharge from and twice weekly during the ICU stay. Patients found to be colonised with MRSA will be isolated in a single room (or cohorted with other MRSA colonised patients). Contact precautions (gloves and gowns for all contacts) will also be used for MRSA colonised patients. These precautions will be used for the duration of the patient's ICU stay once found to be colonised. Patients not found to be colonised will be managed using the same infection control precautions as in the control period (ie standard precautions and plastic aprons for all patients).
Sponsors
Caroline Marshall
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Other
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
All patients admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital (adult) ICU
Exclusion criteria
Nil
Outcome results
None listed