Patient ambulance services and MRSA

The patient ambulance services are the bridge between the hospital (with the necessary strict hygiene measures) and the ambulatory care (with standard hygiene or completely normal handling of MRSA patients). The activity at this bridge leads to the fact that MRSA is handled like a normal directly transmittable disease. As a result, there have often been instances of exaggerated preventive measures in the last years, such as wearing virus-proof protection equipment (e.g. complete body protection and P3 masks). The socio-medical harm to the patients that results from this kind of handling (e.g. stigmatising) has a greater importance than the advantage of protection in the context of the containment of MRSA, especially if the transmission can be avoided by more rational infection control measures.Within the MRSA-net project the quality goals for the patient transportation services and their handling of MRSA patients are discussed and updated. Of particular importance is the advanced training of staff by public health authorities and experts of the MRSA-net coordination centres.