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Johns Hopkins begins screening children for "superbugs"

Infection Control Monitor, April 20, 2007

Infection control and critical care experts at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have ordered testing for the two most common hospital superbugs for every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit, the facility said in a press release.

The more stringent admission screening methods for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) go beyond standard hospital practices, where medical staff only order tests after symptoms or early signs of infection appear, the hospital said.

Johns Hopkins introduced the new practice March 1 after a study conducted at the hospital last year showed that more frequent screening detected many more carriers of the germs before their presence led to infection or the spread of disease to others. "The results were quite clear to us: Aggressive patient safety programs should consider testing on admission as standard practice," said Trish Perl, MD, the study's senior author and hospital epidemiologist in the press release. The hospital already routinely screens adults upon admission to intensive care units.

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