Keeping Residents Safe – Using Enhanced Barrier Precautions

A Message from Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation Long-Term Care Administration

Dear Residents, Families, Friends, and Volunteers:

You may have noticed signs on some doors or in resident’s rooms that say “Enhanced Barrier Precautions” and staff wearing gowns and gloves more often. We’re doing this based on new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect our residents and staff from germs that can cause serious infections and are difficult to treat. You may have heard about these germs in the news, called multidrug-resistant organisms, or MDROs.

Studies have shown that more than 50% of nursing home residents have these germs on or in their bodies, especially in places where the skin is broken, such as wounds or at the insertion sites of medical devices like feeding tubes. Most of the time, people do not know they are carrying these germs but under certain conditions, they can enter the body and cause serious infections.

Fortunately, there are many things we can do to prevent these germs from spreading, but we need your help! Two important practices are:

1. Cleaning our hands. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can kill these germs and prevent us from spreading them with our hands. We remind you and your visitors to wash your hands often.
2. Using gowns and gloves. Since we can’t wash our clothes between caring for residents, gowns and gloves help keep these germs from getting on our clothes and spreading to others when we have close contact with residents. For this reason, you may see us wearing a gown and gloves when we are doing transfers or other activities that involve a lot of resident contact. Just because we’re wearing a gown and gloves doesn’t mean a resident is carrying one of these germs. We also wear them to protect residents who may be more susceptible to developing a serious infection if exposed to these germs. We will also wear them when we expect a care activity to be messy, such as when we change as dressing on a wound.

To support these practices, you may see more alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispensers, carts/caddies to hold clean gowns and gloves, and trash cans so we can change gowns and gloves between residents. You may also see more signs to help remind staff when to wear gowns and gloves.

We are always happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we are taking to protect our residents and staff, and we appreciate your support! Please contact us with additional questions at 417-326-6267.

To learn more about Enhanced Barrier Precautions, please visit Implementation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use in Nursing Homes to Prevent Spread of Multidrug-resistant Organisms (MDROs).