Marshall Medical Center, which includes Marshall Hospital, a fully accredited acute care facility with 113 beds located in Placerville and several outpatient facilities, adopted Nozin® Nasal Sanitizer® as part of their screen and treat protocol in 2015.
At the APIC 2016 conference, Nina Deatherage, BSN, RN, PHN, CIC, presented results of eliminating MRSA contact precautions at Marshall Medical Center. This poster abstract concluded: “Elimination of CP in MRSA non-infected patients while maintaining low infection rates and improving staff and patient satisfaction was achieved with IC protocols utilizing nasal and skin decolonization. A significant reduction in CP-related PPE costs also resulted.” Nozin® Nasal Sanitizer® antiseptic was used to achieve nasal decolonization. More information can be found on AJIC site.
Deatherage explains the rationale for implementing Nozin, “The use of the Nozin product with our MRSA colonized patients enables us to actively reduce bacterial carriage without using antibiotics on those who might be contributing to transmission and to environmental burden.” Deatherage also notes, “By including Nozin as one of our risk mitigation strategies, we feel that we are going the extra mile in protecting patients and staff from MRSA transmission without all of the other costs and delay.Contact Precautions, especially for MRSA colonization, contribute significantly to infection control cost. This expense can include 70 to 90 gowns and pairs of gloves per day, per isolated patient. Deatherage explains, “When we looked at the numbers and the cost savings, including medical waste disposal, we have saved over $64,000 in direct costs within a year of implementing the program using Nozin. The reduction of Contact Precautions not only saves money but can significantly improve quality of care, responsiveness and overall patient satisfaction.” Estimates show that for most hospitals such CP costs can range from $150 to $200 per patient per day. A 300 bed hospital could save hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual CP costs.
For the Marshall team, the use of Nozin was a clear preference over the use of a topical antibiotic such as mupirocin. Deatherage comments, “Any use of an antibiotic has the potential for being the ‘straw that broke the camel's back’ in a patient who may have had repeated exposures to antibiotics, possibly tipping over the edge into resistance. I believe that Nozin is the safer option to accomplish reduction of bio burden during the time that patients are in our facility.”
Nozin Nasal Drug Reduces Risk and Cost Associated with MRSA at Marshall Medical Center
