An outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria at the Sturgeon Hospital has forced the closure of one of the facility’s surgical wards.
The 22-bed unit is closed to new admissions while hospital staff embark on a heavy duty clean to deal with Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) a bacteria that has infected several patients over the last few months.
Dr. Mark Joffe, the senior medical director for infection control and prevention with Alberta Health Services, said the hospital began seeing cases of the bacteria late this summer and has been gradually increasing their infection control measures to deal with the problem.
Closing the unit is one of the last measures they take, but they felt it was necessary.
He stressed the problem is not uncommon in hospitals.
“It is a fairly common hospital problem so what we are experiencing is a slight increase on the particular unit and in the surgical program.”
Joffe said because the bacteria is resistant to antibiotics they try to do as much as possible to prevent it from spreading.
“There are other choices of antibiotics, but some of our first choices may not be available, so again, it is an organism we want to prevent from spreading,” he said. “We would like to limit how much we see of this particular bacteria.”
Joffe said the bacteria also lives on surfaces for longer than most others, so it’s important to be able to clean every inch of the rooms.
He said the ward should be able to open in the next few days, but he also said they would not rush to open the beds until the issue was under control.
“We just need to get in there and do a really deep cleaning,” he said.
He said about a dozen patients had contracted the virus over the last three months, prompting the move to close the unit to new admissions, thus preventing any further spread of the bacteria.
The bacteria can be life-threatening, but Joffe stressed that is not common.
“A severe infection caused by this bacteria can be fatal, but that is actually very, very rare.”
The Sturgeon has two surgery wards and the other one remains open, Joffe said all surgeries at the facility were going ahead as planned.
“It hasn’t impacted surgery and we determined to make sure it doesn’t impact surgical procedures.”
Joffe said the bacteria is a common problem and the Edmonton region saw a brief rise in area hospitals this spring. He said that with the exception of the Sturgeon there are very few infections now.
“This is a problem in modern healthcare. We deal with it on an ongoing basis.”
