130278Measuring the True Impact of MRSA POC testing in Hospital Emergency AdmissionsClosedFast TrackInnovate UKAll hospital admission in the UK are screened for MRSA in line with current Department of Health guidance. There are limitation associated with current screening practices when considering emergency admissions. Traditional culture takes 24-72 hours, is depandant on microbiology lab service operating hours and lacks sensitivity. With a move to consolidate of pathology services it is likely samples are transported to off site laboratories far from the hospital and increasing even more the time to actionable result. This delay results in hospitals relying on risk assement to manage patients and in many cases the patient managemnt is changed after receiving test results. This causes inappropriate isolation and decolnisation, wasted nursing time, increased risk of infection and transmission. Often results are avialable once patient is already discharged and follow up is then under the respnsibility of the community healthcare service. The Cepheid Xpert MRSA assay is simple to use and provides fast, accurate results on demand. In this study we implement a POC MRSA screening strategy at a district general hospital. Clinically actionable results are available within 2 hours of patient being admitted and are automatically transferred directly to laboratory and patient record. Knowing MRSA colonisation results before patients moved to their treatment ward enables better management of patients, improved patient safety/experience, better use of resources (staff time for the laboratory, nurse, porters/domestics, bed managers) and prevents wasted treatment and isolation days. The aim of the study is to measure the actual impact to patients, hospital service and costs by ustalising Xpert MRSA for POC testing at busy district general hospital. The impact is measured for multiple areas of the hospital service (listed below) and affects multiple stakeholders. - Reduced risk of transmission of MRSA - Better utilisation of hospital resources - only isolating patients known to be colonised - Eliminate unnecessary decolonisation for high risk patient who are actually MRSA negative on admission. - Improved bed management/ bed flow – reduce multiple moves due to delayed results - Potential to reduce LOS and isolation days - Avoiding dependence on community healthcare service to follow up patients- treat and advise all patients prior to discharge.