Calming concerns about MRSA

Link: Calming concerns about MRSA / nwi.com.

Five area hospitals -- St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers' north and south campuses, St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Michigan City and Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster -- are working together to institute procedures aimed at containing the bug. Currently, everyone who enters one of these facilities is questioned to determine his or her susceptibility to MRSA, and higher risk individuals are tested with a swab to the nose. Those who are carriers of the bug, whether symptomatic or not, are isolated from other patients. At the same time, the infection control coordinators at each hospital say the urgency of basic hygiene practices can't be overstated. "It's just stressing the importance of hand hygiene and just total body hygiene and being conscious of your environment and washing hands frequently," says Sally Bola, infection control coordinator at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center in Hammond. The coordinators hope their message of hand washing, using hand sanitizers, showering after participating in sporting events and cleaning gym equipment filter down into community settings as well. Chris Shakula, infection control coordinator at St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, says the MRSA project is also a safeguard to prepare for MRSA challenges ahead. "A patient can come in with a community-acquired strain and spread that strain into the facility and it becomes a blurred line of, is it now community-acquired or healthcare acquired?" Shakula says.