Table 1.

 Combinations of screening and interventions for the control of meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients on intensive care units

Screening	Screening method	Intervention
		Patient group*	Timing	Procedure
No screening	Conventional culture of clinical swabs only	MRSA positive	On result	Isolation or decolonisation (chlorhexidine)
No screening	Conventional culture of clinical swabs only	All patients	Pre-emptively	Isolation or decolonisation (chlorhexidine)
No screening	Conventional culture of clinical swabs only	High risk patients	Pre-emptively	Isolation or decolonisation (chlorhexidine)
All patients	Conventional culture	High risk patients	Pre-emptively (amended on screen result)	Isolation†
All patients on admission, and weekly thereafter	Conventional culture	MRSA positive	On result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)
	Chromogenic agar	MRSA positive	On 48 hour result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)
		MRSA positive	On 24 hour result (amended on 48 hour result)	Isolation†
	Polymerase chain reaction	MRSA positive	On result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)
High risk patients on admission, and weekly thereafter	Conventional culture	MRSA positive	On result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)
	Chromogenic agar	MRSA positive	On 48 hour result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)
		MRSA positive	On 24 hour result (amended on 48 hour result)	Isolation†
	Polymerase chain reaction	MRSA positive	On result	Isolation or decolonisation (mupirocin)

In all strategies, if MRSA was recovered from a clinical specimen the patient was isolated or decolonised according to the specified intervention.

*MRSA positive patients are believed to be colonised or infected with MRSA based on clinical or screening swab result.

†Decolonisation not applicable.