MRSA Screening Programme - Further Information for Health Professional
As a result of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing's announcement, an MRSA Screening National Rollout project has been set-up to change the current MRSA screening policy and embed the revised practice within NHSScotland, ensuring a consistency of approach.
The revised practice means that all patients who are admitted to an acute hospital and are expected to stay overnight will:
- Undergo Clinical Risk Assessment (CRA). The three questions are:
- Has the patient any previous history of MRSA colonisation or MRSA infection at any time in the past?
- Has the patient been admitted from someone other than their own home?
- Does the patient have a wound/ulcer or indwelling medical device which was present before admission to hospital?
- If the answer to any of these questions is yes then the patient will then be swabbed on two body sites, the nose and the perineum. If the latter is not clinically possible then an alternative is throat swabbing, however the diagnostic effectiveness of nasal and throat swabbing is significantly lower than nasal and perineal swabbing.
- In addition to the above category, all patients admitted to the following high-impact specialise will be two body-site swabbed regardless of their CRA response:
- Intensive Care
- Orthopaedics
- Renal Medicine
- Vascular Surgery
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
This revised practice is expected to allow for earlier patient placement to be undertaken and also achieving a similar detection rate as with universal swabbing, at a significantly reduced cost.
The protocol for implementation of this revised policy which is being used by all relevant NHS Boards in Scotland is available to view here:
Further Information
Should you have any further questions about the MRSA Screening Programme please contact:
Email: NSS.HPSMRSAscreening@nhs.net
Tel: 0141 282 2932
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