A year with zero MRSA bacteraemias
Plymouth Hospitals NHS has reached a significant milestone this week – a year without any patient having an MRSA bacteraemia (blood stream infection).
This is a fantastic achievement for staff at the large, specialist Trust and is testament to their hard work and dedication to reduce infections.
Dr Peter Jenks, Director of Infection Prevention and Control, said: “An MRSA blood-stream infection is one of the most serious type of healthcare infections and can have a devastating impact on a patient.
“To be free of MRSA blood stream infections for so long is excellent news for the patients we are treating and reassuring for those who need to come in for care.
“A year without any MRSA blood stream infections is a milestone that so many have worked to achieve.
“It has been a long, hard road over the past 10 years; we have worked very hard to reduce our rates of hospital-acquired infections. This milestone reflects our zero-tolerance approach and is a result of the huge efforts and hard work of everyone who works at the hospital.”
Achieving the milestone
The Trust has implemented a package of control measures to reduce the number of cases of MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections that has included:
• Screening patients before they are admitted to hospital to have an operation. Those found to be carrying MRSA harmlessly up their nose are then prescribed eradication therapy to get rid of the bacteria before it can become a problem for them or anyone else when they enter hospital.
• Joining the National Patient Safety Agency’s Clean Your Hands campaign. Clean Your Hands aims to promote good hand hygiene practice and help minimise infection risks in hospitals. A core component of the campaign is to increase the use of alcohol hand rubs by clinical staff and encourage patients to ask staff if they have cleaned their hands.
• Increased presence of the infection control team throughout the hospital, including infection control ward rounds and visiting every patient with MRSA every week.
• Investing in a state-of-the-art MRSA screening system. The Trust was one of the first in the UK to invest in this cutting edge technology to modernise screening for MRSA. The technology can detect the DNA ‘fingerprint’ of MRSA in a swab without the need to grow the bacterium first - cutting the time from taking a swab to obtaining a result from five days to three hours.
Dr Jenks added: “Handwashing is the single most important thing we can all do to reduce the spread of MRSA and other infections and it is great to see this firmly embedded at the hospital.
“Patients and visitors also have a role to play. They should not visit the hospital if they are feeling unwell and we actively encourage people to politely ask doctors and nurses and other health professionals whether they have thoroughly washed their hands before touching patients.”
