Nursing Homes and MRSA
Posted by Patti on January 24th, 2008 / 
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Nursing homes are not prepared to deal with MRSA…says this article:
“Much of the research effort around MRSA to date has focused primarily on hospitals,” said Carmel Hughes, lead review author.
MRSA spreads easily — most commonly via the hands of health care workers — and first-line antibiotics, like penicillin, are ineffective against the organism. Nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable because infection with the bug tends to increase with advancing age.
Close living proximity, multiple medications, pressure sores and catheters all make nursing homes ideal for breeding and spreading MRSA. However, nursing homes appear to have been short-changed in the medical literature on prevention, despite studies repeatedly reporting that residents are at higher risk.
“Many different ways of preventing the spread of MRSA have been studied, particularly in hospitals; however, we found no studies that looked at ways of preventing the spread of MRSA in nursing homes for older people,” the reviewers say.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I have read (maybe here?) that many hospitals now test patients prior to admisson for MRSA, and treat patients with meds if they have it. Would this be cost effective for the nursing home too? And what about that community acquired MRSA? I bet a lot of staff have it too, without knowing it. Do they get tested and treated as well?
January 26th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
They test them upon admission as well, which is needed for those who don’t have planned admissions.
They could do this for nursing homes too. Question is: Who pays? For the tests and then the treatment? It s much cheaper to treat than to not treat and see MRSA spread, or become “active” during an acute illness.
I think staff should be tested/treated as well, if they have symptoms.