An audit has revealed your ICU has an MRSA infection rate which exceeds national benchmarks. Outline the steps you would take to improve this situation
Investigation/planning-
Acknowledgement/ownership
Education
Physical cleaning
Unit design and procedures
Antibiotic Stewardship
KPIs and Re assessment
Higher marks were allocated to answers which gave a structured approach consisting of
Examiners Comments:
Generally answered well; generic answers without reference to the specific issue were marked poorly.
Normally this sort of "organisational approach to MRO spread" question has stereotypical elements. Even though the examiners remark that "generic answers without reference to the specific issue were marked poorly", what they gave was in fact a fairly generic looking answer, in terms of its structure.
Thus:
Commence active surveillance cultures to determine the extent and source of the problem:
Control the outbreak:
Coordinate a response and empower a team to execute the response:
Promote adherence to the new policies
Collect data regarding MRSA colonisation and the effect of your new strategies
Chapter 70 (pp. 724) Nosocomial infections by James Hatcher and Rishi H-P Dhillon
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