BRMO­screening op de (poli)kliniek

Description

Recent publications have hinted that the yield of the
HRMO screening questionnaire in Dutch hospitals
does not outweigh the effort that has to be put in. In
Amsterdam UMC, we found that the number of newly
identified HRMO carriers through screening in the
outpatient departments was much lower than in clinical
setting (number needed to ask more than 100 times
higher for outpatients). Even though the compliance in
obtaining screening cultures from outpatients is very
low, no outbreaks have been observed in these
departments. The screening questionnaire appears to
be an ineffective strategy in the outpatient department
and the risk of a significant increase in HRMO
transmission or outbreaks when abandoning it, seems
small. In a clinical setting however our data suggests
that abandoning the questionnaire could lead to a
significant increase in unexpected findings of MRSA,
CPE and VRE and thus potential outbreaks.
Considering the scale and costs of such outbreaks, we
prefer to retain the questionnaire in the clinical setting.