Proposed: Should hospitals and other medical centers test all patients for MRSA upon admission?

To answer Brian's question (from Jenna's evidence):

But other research has suggested that such techniques may be excessive, and may have the unintended consequence of diminishing medical care for quarantined patients. The disease control agency, in guidelines released last year, recommended that hospitals try to reduce infection rates by first improving hygiene and resort to screening high-risk patients only if other methods fail.

What's the argument against hospitals doing this?

i have done some limited research on this and there does seem to be an active debate out there on this issue, so it has merit.

i would modify the wording of the issue a bit though.

how about:

should hospitals and other medical centers test all newly admitted patients for MRSA?

in terms of a 'hospital policy' sub topic, i am not totally sold on that idea yet. let's see if there are other issues out there in this area before making a call. awhile back esperanto had wanted to not have a health policy sub topic in health as he couldn't find much that would fall into such a domain.

This is a good topic. And yea, maybe hospital policy would be a good idea.

If there's a debate on it then let's do it. 

Should we have a "hospital policy" topic? 

ATLANTA, Oct. 16 — Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States in 2005 after being infected with virulent drug-resistant bacteria that have spread rampantly through hospitals and nursing homes, according to the most thorough study of the disease’s prevalence ever conducted.

 

The government study, which is being published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that such infections may be twice as common as previously thought, according to its lead author, Dr. R. Monina Klevens.

If the mortality estimates are correct, the number of deaths associated with the germ, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, would exceed those attributed to H.I.V.-AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, emphysema or homicide each year.

The findings are likely to stimulate further an already active debate about whether hospitals and other medical centers should test all patients for MRSA upon admission. Some hospitals have had notable success in reducing their infection rates by isolating infected patients and then taking extra precautions, like requiring workers to wear gloves and gowns for every contact.
But other research has suggested that such techniques may be excessive, and may have the unintended consequence of diminishing medical care for quarantined patients. The disease control agency, in guidelines released last year, recommended that hospitals try to reduce infection rates by first improving hygiene and resort to screening high-risk patients only if other methods fail.

issue prior to revisions: