A former nurse infected with a deadly superbug is accusing a B.C. hospital of failing to take proper measures to control the spread of infection.

Jeannie Whitfield was horrified over what she calls lax infection control in hospital.
(CBC)

"In my experience, proper isolation practices were non-existent," said retired nurse Jeannie Whitfield.

Whitfield is a carrier of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cause serious illness or death if caught by elderly or ill patients. 

Whitfield was recently hospitalized in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) for another illness. She now worries that others may have caught MRSA from her, because of what she called the hospital's lack of hygiene.

"I do not want another person to die because of me," Whitfield said.

"I apologize that she feels the staff don't take it seriously but my experience is the staff take it very seriously," said Lesley Moss, executive director of patient safety for the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Infectious patient put in room with others

Whitfield found out she was an MRSA carrier two years ago.

Assistant Auditor General Morris Sydor says a recent audit of B.C. hospitals found many deficiencies.
(CBC)

In October 2007, she was admitted to NRG for an unrelated illness. Whitfield said because she is infectious, she was supposed to be isolated from other patients in hospital, but she was placed in a room with three other patients. She was told she wasn't allowed to use the washroom, but could use the sink in the open patient area.

"At one point there were nine people in that room and I had to sit on a commode (bedpan) with diarrhea and one gentlemen accidentally touched my leg and apologized — that's how crowded the room was. Now would you call that isolation?" Whitfield said.

"People coming to see me had gloves on and masks on, to prevent the spreading of this bug — yet that wasn't done by anyone else who came into the room."

"We would love to be able to put patients in private rooms; that's not our reality," Moss said. As long as a patient is confined to their bed, she added, the spread of infection can be controlled even in a multi-patient room.

What upset Whitfield most, though, she said, was nursing staff often didn't wear gloves while treating her.

After touching her bare-handed, she claims, they would then move on to treat other patients in the room, without washing their hands first. Experts agree the most effective way to prevent the spread of MRSA is by simple hand washing.

"I was given, twice, a back rub with bare hands — and I said, 'No, I am contagious, please don't do that.' They said 'Oh no, it's all right, we won't be spreading it,'" Whitfield said. "They had a sign on saying it was isolation but it wasn't practised."

Whitfield said she doesn't blame the nursing staff. She believes they were effectively forced to cut corners because they were too busy.

"I would ring the bell and then two other ladies (in the room) would want attention and the nurse was going crazy and of course she could not do a good job," Whitfield said.

"The staff are very busy — but they do take it very seriously. It is difficult sometimes for them to adhere, but they try their very best," Moss said.

Provincewide audit found similar deficiencies

B.C.'s Assistant Auditor General Morris Sydor said a recent audit of infection control practices in B.C. hospitals found many deficiencies, similar to those Whitfield has flagged.

Lesley Moss of the Vancouver Island Health Authority says staff take infection control very seriously.
(CBC)

"Practices that are expected to be carried out aren't being carried out. There are significant deficiencies," Sydor said.

"There are standards in place across Canada and we found that the (B.C.) health authorities needed to enhance the number of resources they were applying to meet those standards."

Report cited 20 ways to make improvements

The report made 20 recommendations for improvement across the province, including better surveillance, more integration between hospitals and health authorities and more resources devoted to infection control overall.

Sydor said even the simplest, cheapest and most effective prevention — hand washing — was not up to standard. The audit found compliance rates among hospital staff as low as 20 percent.

"The hospital professionals know what has to be done, it's just not being carried out to the degree that it should be," Sydor said. 

He believes leadership is needed in the B.C. Ministry of Health, to make infection control a higher priority. The auditor general's office is presenting its findings to the public accounts committee in Victoria on Tuesday.

"The health authorities in the province have a long way to go to have the sort of system in place that we felt was appropriate," Sydor said.

Moss acknowledged infection control can be difficult, given the limited resources and aging patients. She said patients like Whitfield should speak up when they see staff doing something they know is wrong.

"Ultimately they (staff) are responsible for caring for that patient and are required to protect the patient as well as themselves from the spread of infection," Moss said.

"With the number of patients that are very sick and compromised, the workload of the staff, our aging population, we see more vulnerable people — and we hear more of their stories."

Whitfield said she hoped by going public with her story, she would raise alarm bells and encourage other patients to speak up too.

"The thought of hurting another human being is not acceptable and it can be avoided by proper hygiene in the hospitals," she said.