7 Healthcast: MRSA Test

It's called MRSA - Methycillin resistant staph aureus.

Maureen Spencer, New England Baptist Hospital
"Back in the fall of ‘05 we had a series of patients that developed positive blood cultures with staph aureus and MRSA."

Now New England Baptist Hospital is fighting back in an effort to prevent infection before it strikes.

All surgery patients at the hospital now go through a pre-screening for MRSA.

Maureen Spencer, New England Baptist Hospital
"What we're looking for is colonization, where the organism lives in your nose, but it's not causing infection."

Two weeks before surgery- a patient's nose is swabbed and tested.

Maureen Spencer, New England Baptist Hospital
"We can tell the patient within a day that you have this, and start the treatment protocol."

If the test comes back positive- the patient is prescribed a special antibiotic and instructed to wash with an antiseptic skin cleanser.

They are then re-tested, and if they're MRSA-free, they're good to go for surgery.

Maureen Spencer, New England Baptist Hospital
"We've been able to show that we've been able to reduce by 50 percent the infections that are caused by staph aureus in orthopedic surgery at this hospital."

Infection control nurse Maureen Spencer says at first the MRSA test made some patients uneasy, but after they understood its importance, they were glad to get it done.

Maureen Spencer, New England Baptist Hospital
"They are so happy we do it, that we're actually pro-actively trying to find it ahead of time and get rid of it so that they don't have a chance of getting infected."

New England Baptist says they've been contacted by other hospitals around the country who are looking to use this same pre-screening technology in their facilities.

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