are able to stay the night before surgery at the Ronald McDonald
House.
Trauma patients and emergency surgery require the same protocol,
however, we will not delay surgery for the MRSA screening.
Antibiotic stewardship is a priority for our organization, and there-
fore, an antibiotic is not used unless indicated.
Although Nemours has not had a problem getting reimbursed for
the MRSA swabs because they are considered part of the surgical
encounter, we realized that even if we weren't being reimbursed, the
cost to us is negligible compared to the overall value of preventing an
SSI.
Crucial elements
Ultimately, there were several keys to success. One was making
sure we provided first-hand education with everybody involved. We
would not have been able to move forward if we had to rely on e-
mail, flyers, or word of mouth. Auditing and in-the-moment feed-
back were crucial to the success of our implementation. Buy-in
from all the key stakeholders was also essential to ensuring compli-
ance and giving feedback. Looking back on this journey, while there
were challenges along the way, we overcame them as a team and
the success far exceeded our expectations.
OSM
M a r c h 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 9
Ms. Schofield (roberta. schofield@nemours.org) is a perioperative clinical
nurse specialist at Nemours/ Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in
Wilmington, Del.
