Some hospitals test for MRSA before you can be admitted to a ward as a patient.?

Question

What does the test entail? Do they take a swab from your nose and are some people natual carriers of the MRSA super bug?

Answer 1

All admissions are screened if the status is unknown. It can be done by nasal swab and culture. There is no such thing as a "natural" carrier. There are those infected, those who are colonized and those who are asymptomatic and are chronic carriers.

Answer 2

The policy varys from Trust to Trust. I work for Guy's and St. Thomas' in London and we do admission and discharge swabs of the nose, armpit and groin.

Some people may test positive for MRSA, especially from the nose swab, but this does not mean you are infected with it. It just means the bug has colonised you (ie up your nose!) but will not do you any harm so long as you have a good enough immune system to keep it at bay. About 1 in 5 of us are colonised by MRSA. You may pose a threat to other patients, ie those who are immunosuppressed (sick!) and for that reason you may be put into isolation.

Answer 3

Yes you are right some people are 'staph carriers' and some of that will be MRSA.

Unfortunately I'm a bit cynical that this is a ploy by the government to massage down the MRSA figures!

Some of the paperwork I have read suggests that most of the MRSA found in this way is in patients who have already been treated in hospital and got the bug there in the first place.

It is interesting that in general practise, even those like mine who do a fair bit of minor surgery, there is much less MRSA. considering that generally our operating facilities are somewhat primitive. I believe this is because our patient throughput is less. So what does the government want to do? It wants to give contracts to 'Super Surgeries' to centralise GP minor surgery and save money! Anyone not in government and preferably with no administrative, scientific or medical training, like to guess what will happen to infection rates if they do?

Answer 4

A swab from the nose , a swab from a wound , however some hospitals do not bother to swab at discharge , my experience was like that , my GP conducted a swab two days after release and it was affirmative . makes you wonder if the hospital just wants you out as quick as possible without the bother of isolation. My feelings go out for all the other patients who might get the same as me simply because the hospital did not even bother to shut the ward down.

Answer 5

Hi
MRSA is one of the very his is causing a lot of issues for institutions including lawsuits and negligence cases. This bug is mainly in the hospital and is very hard to treat but its begining to be seen with people from the community, especially the elderly who are in homes. The reason they are testing the people before admission is to detect the ratio of hospital acquired and those coming from the community. This will help to determine if MRSA is increasing in the community and to try and find out why and how to stop it on the public health aspect.
The other reason is that the institutions are making sure to protect themselves from lawsuits.
Imagine if someone came with the bug and blaem the hospital for it!!!!

Answer 6

I contracted MRSA and SA in hospital in my spine after surgery, and after more surgery and extensive drug treatment recovered. I had to be tested when I went to hospital again a few years later.The test they did was to take swabs from my nose, armpit and groin. I think the results take about 1-2 weeks. I think it is in a lot of people and lies dormant.

Answer 7

MRSA is carried by most people. Keyboards are notorious for harbouring it. Hospitals that test for it will take a swab from your nose and your groin.

Answer 8

they may swab other areas then your nose.
yes you can be a carrier - a lot of people are carriers, it means that mrsa is present, but not actually causing ant ill-effects (just as there are millions of other bacteria present on your skin that do not cause any ill effects unless they multiply out of controll (infection)

Answer 9

nicely shall we wish you do not dilate anymore. stay very hydrated and bedrest truly means bedrest. the toddler would both no longer make it or have extreme respiration issues if it were to be born everywhere between now and the subsequent 4-6 weeks. i became 2cm dilated at 28 weeks like you. i became on Terbutaline each 4 hours around the clock from 28 to 36 weeks. At 36 weeks I went off the drugs and waited. I not at all dilated any more suitable. i finished up being triggered at 40 weeks and it took an entire day of induction to pass from those 2cm to 4-5cm. They stopped, enable me sleep and restarted the subsequent morning. It took 5 hours to pass from that 4 to 6 the position they broke my water. It became all downhill there - I went from 6 to ten to delivery in below 2 hours after that.

Answer 10

They tend to test your blood as well as swabing areas such as throat, nose armpits and groin. All it does is tell the admissions staff whether you need to isolated or if you are able to join the main wards.