Four More Hospitals Screening for Super-Staph

In Europe, the intervention is known as 'search and destroy.' Search for every source of drug-resistant bacteria coming into a hospital and destroy opportunities for the superbugs to spread.

It's how countries from the Netherlands to England have battled the growing threat posed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and brought soaring infection rates under control.

Now, Loyola University Health System and three local Veterans Affairs facilities are embracing the tactic. Come November, Loyola will start testing all hospital patients for MRSA and taking aggressive steps to prevent its transmission. Hines VA Hospital near Maywood and the North Chicago and Jesse Brown VA Medical Centers implemented what's known as 'universal screening' for MRSA at the end of September.

'It's a safety decision: We want to do what's in the best interest of our patients,' said Dr. Paul Whelton, Loyola's chief executive, who announced the new policy Monday.

The four health facilities are implementing similar strategies. Every patient admitted to Loyola or the VA facilities will get a nasal swab from a nurse. The swabs will be sent to a laboratory for a DNA test to determine if MRSA is present.

The goal is to find patients who carry the bug without knowing it and who are at high risk of becoming infected when they undergo surgery or other invasive procedures. These 'MRSA-colonized' patients can easily transmit the bacteria to others.

Patients testing positive for MRSA will be placed in a private room, and medical staff will be required to wear disposable gowns and gloves and follow strict hand-washing regimens.

Only one other institution in the Chicago area has a similar policy: Evanston Northwestern Healthcare has been checking all patients at its three hospitals for MRSA and taking vigorous steps to combat the bacteria since 2005.

Dr. John Jernigan, a MRSA expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that universal screening was 'uncommon' in the U.S. and that evidence supporting it was limited.

But concern over MRSA is mounting, fueled by new data from the CDC showing that invasive infections caused by the bacteria strike nearly 94,000 people every year and kill about 19,000.

How best to combat the bacteria remains a much-debated question. The CDC advises hospitals to institute strict hygiene standards and focus on disinfecting potentially contaminated areas. If that doesn't work, the agency recommends that hospitals test patients and take measures to reduce transmission.

'No randomized peer-reviewed studies have been published which show the benefit of screening all patients for MRSA,' said Dr. Gordon Trenholme, director of infectious disease at Rush University Medical Center, in an e-mail.

But numerous reports from the field suggest screening does lower MRSA infection rates.

source: chicago tribune