Comments on: MRSA: Victimization and Shooting the Messenger

By: Simple Meditation

Simple Meditation — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:32:57 +0000

Excellent content and style…keep up the good work!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:44:01 +0000

My 84 year old father is a victim of hospital acquired MRSA pneumonia. It is a miracle he has lived for the past 4 weeks with this infection. His prognosis is dire. He has lost 30 lbs, unable to eat, deaf from Vancomycin, isolated in a nursing home that didn’t want to take him becasue of his MRSA, unable to move himself in bed let alone get out of bed, and now starting to get bedsores. He was in the hospital for over 2 weeks and now has been in the nursing home for a little over 3 weeks. I doubt he will ever leave the nursing home, even though that is his greatest desire.
I am an RN. He was a strapping 6 foot 200lb man just a few months ago. He fell at home on Sept 26 and was hospitalized for a fractured fibula and subsequent rehabilitation. He contracted MRSA during that stay. He was discharged home on OCT 7 and readmitted on Oct 9 with fever, pneumonia and a question of a heart attack. He wasn’t diagnosed with MRSA until all of my family were good and exposed to it…about 5 days into the admission..first in his urine and then in his sputum. All of my family had been visiting and given wrong instructions on precautions because everybody there did their own thing with precautions…from none at all to full gown, mask and gloves.
My father did have a heart attack and nearly died one day after he was readmitted. Then all the cultures came back and he had HA MRSA. They treated him until they deemed him ‘well enough’ to be discharged to a nursing home. It seems that now he will always be ‘colonized’ in his lungs for MRSA and he is indeed being left to die. The nursing home claims they can’t force him to eat, get out of bed or anything else. It is his right to refuse.
At this point, I dont’ believe there is much that can help my father recover. But, let me be very clear….MRSA IS THE REASON HE IS DYING. He had other health problems that were under control and just 5 weeks ago, he was at home moving about independently with a walker.
He is a VICTIM of dirty hospital care. And as an RN, I will channel my anger to get this recognized and make hospitals accountable for these infections.

By: Geraldine

Geraldine — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:55:12 +0000

Last November I complained vigorously about an ER doctor touching a reddened wound without washing his hands or using gloves. The doctor dismissed my concerns about MRSA. So, my complaints went all the way to hospital administrators, the state, and accrediting organizations. No responses. In January, I was draped, painted with antiseptic, and cautioned by the tech not to touch the sterile area. The doctor entered, stood in front of a sink, and started to pull on gloves (after rummaging thru a box of them) and WOULD NOT WASH HIS HANDS WHEN ASKED TO. Again, I complained to the hospital administration, provided RID and CDC materials, and was assured by the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer that the doctor has been educated. Key words here: “doctor” and “educated”. Two surgeries in our family in March have convinced me that we have an enormous job to do in educating doctors, nurses, and just about all hospital health care workers to wash their hands. I put signs above their beds, politely asked, provided pump alcohol dispensers, and, in one instance, physically blocked a surgical resident from touching my husband’s incision with uncleaned hands. Overwhelming.

By: Pat Stanis

Pat Stanis — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:33:58 +0000

Dear Ms. Torrey,

The 20 month old grandson of a friend of mine was tested for and (unofficially) diagnosed with MRSA today. The family is no being told that they must wait until Monday for the Dx to be “official” and for the baby to be admitted to the hospital for antibiotics by IV. Do you have any suggestions as to how the family might expedite this process so that the child is taken into the hospital and Tx begun immediately?
Thank you in advance for your response.
Pat Stanis

By: Joe Schmoe

Joe Schmoe — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:39:44 +0000

I’ve worked for a large state hospital in nursing for many years, until this year, and I can tell you I have been disgusted by what I have seen. I’ve even known many patients who have died from both secondary MRSA AND Clostridium Difficile (C-DIFF) hospital acquired infections. I shouldn’t leave out VRE (Vacomyicin Resistant Enterococcous); these three are the major hospital acquired infections.

Many healthcare workers attempt to cut time by cutting corners; and this includes the cleaning staff responsible for disinfecting the rooms after the patients are discharged. Frequently, the cleaning is substandard. A single occupancy room, used as an “isolation” room for an MRSA infected patient, does not get the proper cleaning after the patient is discharged into the community (often times WITH the MRSA infection, out into the public).

So in addition to nursing and physician staff that don’t follow proper hand washing and sterile field procedures, you have cleaning staff also cutting corners. Part of this has to do with being so overwhelmed by being understaffed for the level of care; they believe that they can work faster if they just cut one little corner, no harm done, right? In their minds anyway, and doctors and nurses alike convince themselves of that. I shudder at the dirty white coats doctors are so fond of wearing, as a symbol of status-the germs I can imagine swimming on those things are enormous. Why change your hospital scrubs every day, or several times a day, if your just going to put a dirty jacket over it? Make sense to anyone?

Furthermore, let’s talk about inpatient physical therapy rooms. How often are they disinfected? Patients with open wounds and seeping wounds frequent these places, share mats and equipment, with very little to no disinfection in between. What about the wheelchairs shared between patients, with no disinfecting in-between? Or, the sharing of a bathroom in a double patient room. I’m sure these are not good practices. Privacy curtains are not changed between patients, even though they are frequently touched by dirty physician and nurse hands, pulling the curtain back for a patient’s privacy, but also spreading germs… ready for the next patient.

My best and most disgusting observation is the operating room one. In the OR, many surgeons choose to use cloth drapes over the patient instead of the paper drapes; not much of a problem, except that the surgeons actually STAPLE the cloth drapes DIRECTLY TO THE PATIENT!!! So you get not only disrespect of a human being’s body in lieu of physician preference, but you also get an additional wound here and there from the staples they used, which opens your body up for more entry sites for infection. Sometimes, I have found the staples STILL stapled to the patient on return from recovery; they didn’t even bother taking them out, just ripping the cloth drapes off the patient!! I only touched on a few items I have personally experienced/seen. The more people know, the more empowered they will be. Hopefully, we can make our hospitals and health care safer.
Cheers.

By: Perrin

Perrin — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:07:50 +0000

Trisha,
Do not presume to lecture to me about patient safety and shooting the messenger.

My own personal history includes a medical injury and deliberate falsification of my chart to make it look like no one knew an injury had occurred. The facts eventually came out during a confidential settlement, which included a signed agreement by me not to pursue criminal negligence charges against the two nurses involved.

If anyone should be appalled at the dishonesty of the health care profession, it’s me.

But I try to stay away from the blame game. Situations can be complicated and we don’t always know all the facts. I recognize that for you as a blogger, it can be difficult to convey all the facts and nuances within a single post. The additional information you provide in your most recent post does help clarify the picture somewhat.

I tried to be polite in my responses to you. I tried to stick to the facts. The other responders were polite and professional as well. Speaking only for myself, my intention was never to “shoot the messenger” or “blame the victim.” Clearly you believe otherwise, and I’m sorry for that.

I think we could have had some lively, interesting discussions about some of these issues – but not when you react with anger and defensiveness to people who disagree with you or your tactics. So I guess this conversation is over.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:38:51 +0000

Bravo, Trisha.

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:55:08 +0000

I do hate the word, “Victim” because it takes away all our power. Do I think these patients that have contracted MRSA deserve the best possilbe care? Absolutely! But I also believe that patients need to become savvy consumers for their own healthcare needs. What you don’t know CAN kill you. My parents generation revered physicians as gods, their professional judgement was never to be questioned but the reality is that only you can protect yourself and only you, the healthcare consumer, can use your power to hold these physicians/facilities accountable. Make sure the physician is board certified in his/her specialty, make sure the facility is accredited or Medicare certified and has met a nationally recognized set of safety standards, ask for rate of infection reports from the hospital or ASC and EDUCATE YOURSELF so you can ask the appropriate questions about procedures, risk management, infection rates, anesthesia complications/risk and get a second opinion if you are not 100 percent satisified with the answers. Ask questions and make educated choices!! Yes, you do have a choice if who and where you go for treatment!!
Write or call your state legislators, hospital/ASC administrators, state medical boards, DOH, national accrediting bodies, better business bureau and the local media. and report, report, report! If you have a bad experience, don’t assume that things will change on their own. If you have used a physician or facility and received poor care, found sub-standard conditions, acquired an infection………shout it from the rooftop and get the word out so others will be aware that it is not a safe environment to get treated in! Protect yourself as much as possible but if you encounter sub-standard care, don’t just take it, fight back! YOU are your own best patient advocate! AND the next patient may be spared a bad experience.

By: MRSA: Patients Ignored, Left to Die « Every Patient’s Advocate

MRSA: Patients Ignored, Left to Die « Every Patient’s Advocate — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:57:28 +0000

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