Regina E. Dolsen, RN, BSN, MA, is vice president of operations for Blue Chip Surgical Center Partners.
Q: How should our ambulatory surgery center treat patients with MRSA? What action protocol should we follow in the operating room?
Regina Dolsen: The identification of whether your ASC will do MRDO (multidrug-resistant organisms) cases is the first question I would ask. If you do, then the OR should follow contact precautions if the situation is known. The OR should be terminally cleaned following the case, staff should follow all contact precaution practices and usually the case should be scheduled at the end of the day.
Since it is a sterile environment, and since OSHA requires specific management of communicable disease exposures, it would be appropriate to maintain those protocols in the OR. The entire perioperative experience for the patient should follow contact precautions.
Some organizational considerations would be the identification of high-risk patients that would not be good candidates in the center, preoperative nursing assessments should be completed and physician involvement should be part of the decision to do the case in the first place. All of these are fairly standard.
Follow-up calls or an infection post-op call should be completed for all patients but these should have some special follow-up and notations. As always, we would expect all measures be employed to prevent the spread of infection.
Sign up for our FREE E-Weekly for more coverage like this sent to your inbox!
I would also suggest reading "Multidrug-Resistant Organisms: Practice Considerations in the Ambulatory Surgery Setting—Part One" from the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing (Vol. 26, Issue 4, Aug. 2011). At the end of the article there are also many other references that are very helpful.
More Articles Featuring Blue Chip Surgical Center Partners:
From Surgery Center Administrator to Executive: 4 Industry Leaders Discuss Their Transition
10 Steps to Profitable and Successful ENT in Surgery Centers
7 Situations When an ASC Might Need to Drop a Payor
