Health Care Setup Research Articles

Accuracy of Glucose Meter Among Adults in a Semi-urban Area in Kathmandu, Nepal

Glucose meters are gaining popularity in monitoring of blood glucose at household levels and in health care set-ups due to their portability, affordability and convenience of use over the laboratory based reference methods. Still they are not free of limitations. Operator's technique, extreme temperatures, humidity, patients' medication, hematocrit values can affect the reliability of glucose meter results. Hence, the accuracy of glucose meter has been the topic of concern since years. Therefore, present study aims to evaluate the analytical and clinical accuracy of glucose meter using International Organization for Standardization 15197 guideline. A community based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Kapan, Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2018. Glucose levels were measured using glucose meter and reference laboratory method simultaneously among 203 adults ≥20 years, after an overnight fasting and two hours of ingestion of 75 grams glucose. Modified Bland-Altman plots were created by incorporating ISO 15197 guidelines to check the analytical accuracy and Park error grid was used to evaluate the clinical accuracy of the device. Modified Bland-Altman plots showed>95% of the test results were beyond the acceptable analytical criteria of ISO 15197:2003 and 2013. Park Error Grid-Analysis showed 99% of the data within zones A and B of the consensus error grid. Glucose meter readings were within clinically acceptable parameters despite discrepancies on analytical merit. Possible sources of interferences must be avoided during the measurement to minimize the disparities and the values should be interpreted with caution.

The impact of clinical pharmacy services in Nepal in the context of current health policy: a systematic review

The necessity of clinical pharmacy services is increasing globally, and their provision is the upcoming direction of hospital pharmacists. The aim of this review was focused on the impact of clinical pharmacy services in the Nepalese healthcare setup. The English-language databases of Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library were searched using the following keywords: ‘pharmacy’, ‘clinical pharmacy’, pharmaceutical services’, ‘pharmacists’, pharmaceutical care’, ‘pharmacy practice’, ‘hospital pharmacy’, ‘pharmaceutical interventions’, and ‘Nepal’. Eligibility for inclusion, risk of bias assessment, and data extraction from the included studies were determined by two authors, and a narrative synthesis was conducted. This review contained a total of 14 published articles. The included studies involved the counseling and educating of patients, working as a member of the healthcare team, detecting prescribing errors, suggesting clinicians or nurses, reviewing prescriptions on the ward, giving training and monitoring of the implementation of policies, etc. The outcome of these interventions showed a reduction in the direct healthcare cost, excessive use of medicines, and prescription errors, as well as improvement in the drug utilization pattern, knowledge, as well as satisfaction of patients. In order to implement and enhance clinical pharmacy services, governmental, educational, and administrative support may be needed.

A questionnaire based study on the knowledge, attitude and the practices of pharmacovigilance among the postgraduate students at a tertiary care hospital in south India

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common cause of morbidity in the practice of medicine. Pharmacovigilance is the science of detection, assessment and understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any drug related problems. Post graduates are perhaps the first to notice ADRs in outpatient/inpatient setup as they spend most of the time bedside. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of postgraduates about Pharmacovigilance.Methods: A prevalidated and pretested questionnaire with 20 questions related to KAP of pharmacovigilance is administered to postgraduate students after obtaining their consent. All the completed and returned questionnaires were analysed for results using appropriate statistics.Results: 180 pretested questionnaires were distributed among postgraduates out of which, 122 were returned from postgraduates of all major medical and surgical allied departments. 90.2 % defined pharmacovigilance correctly, 83.6% thought reporting ADRs is a professional obligation, while only 65.6% knew regarding the existence of national pharmacovigilance program. 58.4% have experienced ADRs, of which only 24.6% reported ADR to pharmacovigilance centre. Major reasons for under reporting are lack of time to report and difficulty to decide whether ADR has occurred or not.Conclusions: In this study, the knowledge and attitude related to Pharmacovigilance is good amongst postgraduates, but practical implementation in reporting of ADRs is poor. Sensitization programs on pharmacovigilance practice in tertiary care hospitals and regular review meetings to ensure ADR reporting to pharmacovigilance centre will strengthen the health care setup.

STRESS SYNDROME;

Background: The house officers face multiple challenging situations at work throughout their internship year leading to House Officer Stress Syndrome. Objectives: The paper addresses the aspects of house officer stress syndrome and its influence on their work. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Tertiary health care setup of Karachi. Period: October to November 2017. Method: A self-designed and self-explanatory questionnaire was prepared and distributed among house officers during work hours. Verbal consent was taken. Confidentiality of the participants was observed. The data was analyzed using SPSS-20, ANOVA and also via a 5 point Linkert scale. Result: A total of 278 responses were obtained from 13 different hospitals, maximum from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. Among the respondents, 83.9% were females and 15.8% were males. Mean age was 24. Around 42.6% worked 96 hours weekly while 64% reported to be on call 7-9 times monthly. On call available sleep time was as low as 1-2 hours. Nearly 56.4% found work physically tiring. Conclusion: It can be concluded that house officers are susceptible to stress which affects their overall work performance. Henceforth, a holistic approach must be taken in order to promote a healthy working environment and effective patient care.

Applications of Blockchain Technology in Medicine and Healthcare: Challenges and Future Perspectives

Blockchain technology has gained considerable attention, with an escalating interest in a plethora of numerous applications, ranging from data management, financial services, cyber security, IoT, and food science to healthcare industry and brain research. There has been a remarkable interest witnessed in utilizing applications of blockchain for the delivery of safe and secure healthcare data management. Also, blockchain is reforming the traditional healthcare practices to a more reliable means, in terms of effective diagnosis and treatment through safe and secure data sharing. In the future, blockchain could be a technology that may potentially help in personalized, authentic, and secure healthcare by merging the entire real-time clinical data of a patient’s health and presenting it in an up-to-date secure healthcare setup. In this paper, we review both the existing and latest developments in the field of healthcare by implementing blockchain as a model. We also discuss the applications of blockchain, along with the challenges faced and future perspectives.

Analysis of incidents of fall in the patients receiving home healthcare services

Background: Incidents of fall remains the major cause of accidental and unintended injury in health care setups. Caring for patients at homecare setting comes with its own challenges and concerns. Methods: The incidents of fall reported over past 18 months in patients availing home care services from Healthcare at home from February 2018 to August 2019 was analysed to identify various risk factors involved in fall and suggestions for fall prevention were laid out in the study. Results: The fall percentage reported was 1.29% of patients served by HCAH during this tenure. The incident of fall was higher in rehabilitation services and lower in nursing services. The results show that prevalence of falling was higher among women than men between the age of 65-84 years. The highest number of falls was reported in patients suffering from neuro disorders, most of the incidents resulted due to external factors where more emphasis needs to be given on creating safe environment in the patient's home. Conclusion: Providing clinical care at home environment even makes it more difficult to control certain factors such as adequate space in the room for safe mobilization or unavailability of grab bars or presence of slippery floors or poor lightening are the majorly contributing to incidents like falls. Thus, identifying underlying risk while admitting the patient in homecare becomes the primary responsibility of the care provider.

Role and impact of WHO Surgical safety checklist implementation on patient safety, in a tertiary level health care center

Background: With over more than 200 million operations performed per year worldwide, there seems to be an urgent need for a checklist to ensure an errorless surgical procedure. WHO surgical safety checklist(SSC) is one, which can help in minimising intraoperative and post-operative errors. In addition, it can also serve as a tool to encourage teamwork and communication among the hospital staff members. Methods: This 1 yearlong study was conducted in 2 parts, in the first held pre checklist implementation phase, complications and mortalities were recorded retrospectively and compared with post checklist implementation phase data. Total of 244 patients participated in the first phase and 236 patients were enrolled in the post checklist implementation phase. Compliance and compatibility with the checklist was tested by a questionnaire given to staff members. Results: Marked reduction in both intraoperative and post-operative complications was documented after checklist implementation. Intraoperative complications went down from 6.14% to 2.12% and post-operative from 6.56% to 3.38%. Similarly, intraoperative mortality rate scrolled down from 3.87% to 0.85% after checklist implementation. Regarding the compliance of the study, 95.3% of our hospital staff was in favour of introducing the WHO SSC as a routine practice in our hospital. Conclusion: WHO SSC is the need of the hour in order to reduce the intraoperative and post-operative complications. Incorporating WHO SSC in health care setup will not only result in improved health care quality but will surely reduce the cost burden in health sector.

Assessment of habit of self-medication among non-teaching staff of private dental institute

Background: Self-medication refers to the use of medicines without prescription to treat self-identified illness. It is a worldwide prevalent practice. It is a common scenario that personnel engaged in health-care setup are closely related to the medicines which physicians prescribe, as a result of which they practice self-medication as well as prescribe medication to others also. The present study is aimed at assessment of habit of self-medication among nonteaching staff of VSPM Dental College.Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the habit of self-medication among nonteaching staff of VSPM Dental College and Research Centre (DC and RC), Nagpur. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 65 nonteaching staff of VSPM DC and RC, Nagpur. The informed consent was obtained from the participants. A prevalidated questionnaire was distributed among them, and data were collected by interview survey method.Results: Self-medication was highly prevalent among the participants of the present study. 53.48% of participants often self-medicate and 74% of them advised medications to others also. Majority of them (54.28%) were taking self-medication, as it was a time-saving option for them; 27.14% among them said that there is no need to visit a physician in case of minor illness. 69.80% of them visit a doctor only in case of serious illness, and very few, i.e., 12.30% were going for regular checkup.Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication practices was alarmingly high in the present study. The holistic approach must be taken to prevent this problem from rising which would involve awareness and education regarding the implications of self-medication.

Prevalence of maxillofacial fracture: A retrospective study

Aim: This study aimed to analyze retrospectively the prevalence, etiology and location, and age and gender distribution of maxillofacial (MF) fractures in the Western part of Maharashtra population. Materials and Methods: Previous records of 1190 patients were evaluated by the observers who had undergone extraoral radiography and occlusal radiography for any diagnostic or treatment purposes between the years 2009 and 2014 were evaluated by the observers. Results: Between the years 2009 and 2014, a total of 2109 MF fractures and associated injuries were collected in 1190 patients and analyzed. Out of the 1190 patients, 697 were male and 493 female. The most commonly affected age group was between 30 and 40 years followed by 20–30 years. The prevalence of road traffic accidents (RTAs) was highest followed by fall, physical assault, sports, and miscellaneous. Conclusion: This study concluded that RTAs were the major cause of fractures. Most fractures occurred in the age group of 31–40 years. Frequency of mandibular fractures was more than midfacial fractures. These findings will be helpful for appropriate health-care policy and management setup in every society.

Burden of Emergency Exploratory Laparotomies: Sleepless Nights in Operation Rooms

Background: Recently the burden of emergency exploratory laparotomies has increased very rapidly. Both traumatic and non-traumatic abdominal emergencies are dealt with in surgical emergency departments which not only increase financial burden to health care setup but also a physical and psychological burden to healthcare providers. The purpose of this study was to share the burden and spectrum of these laparotomies in the emergency surgical department of a tertiary care hospital in a third world country. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study conducted at Surgical Unit-I, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from June 2014 to December 2016. All patients above 12 years presenting to our emergency department directly or referred from any other facility who underwent midline exploratory laparotomy in our hospital were included in our study. Results: A total of 433 patients were included in our study. Out of which, 254 (58.66%) were males and 179 (41.33%) were females and male to female ratio was 1.41:1.342 (78.9%) patients presented with non-traumatic cause whereas 91 (21%) patients have the history of abdominal trauma. Peritonitis (57.6%) followed by intestinal obstruction (28.65%) were the two most common indications of laparotomy in non-trauma patients whereas road traffic accidents and falls (65%) were the most common cause of laparotomy in trauma patients. Intraoperative findings and operative management was compared between trauma and non-trauma patients. Conclusion: In resource-limited countries, they are posing a great burden to emergency departments of tertiary care hospitals. More specialized trauma centers should be established to cope with this burden.

Do primary care physicians require training in core clinical dermatology? A cross sectional needs assessment study from Western India.

Primary care physicians play a crucial role in managing patients with common skin disorders who form around one-third of outpatient attendees. This study aimed to assess the need for dermatology training among primary care physicians by assessing their knowledge, self-perception of ability to diagnose and manage skin disorders, and their difficulties in managing these patients. A descriptive, cross-sectional, needs assessment study was done among primary care physicians (n = 61) of rural (n = 34) and urban (n = 27) areas of Vadodara district. A pre-validated semi-structured questionnaire (for self-rating of the ability to diagnose/manage skin disorders and difficulties faced in managing patients) was used along with a photo-quiz (for knowledge assessment) while approaching primary care physicians during their monthly review meeting with prior permission. Data were analyzed by Epi InfoTM software and manual content analysis. The mean score on the photo-quiz was 4.1/10. Forty-three (70.5%) participants rated their ability to diagnose/manage skin disorders as 'average' on a five-point Likert scale. Various difficulties (n = 89) narrated by participants were related to their knowledge/skill, disease factors, patients and administrative aspects. Three-fourths of the participants managed difficulties by referring patients to dermatologists. One-third suggested conducting training in common skin disorders. The study population included primary care physicians from the government healthcare setup only. Knowledge assessment was done using a short ten-item photo-quiz instead of actual patients. Primary care physicians had poor knowledge of skin disorders, and a majority overrated their own ability for clinical management of these disorders. Most common difficulties faced were related to clinical management. There is a need for training on common skin disorders.

Staphylococcus aureus: A predominant cause of surgical site infections in a rural healthcare setup of Uttarakhand.

Introduction:Surgical site infections (SSIs) represent the second most common type of healthcare-associated infections and remain a relatively common postoperative complication and the most common reason for readmission after surgery. SSIs have dire implications for the surgeon, patient, and institution which often require prolonged treatment, impose an economic burden and double the risk of patient mortality. Staphylococcus aureus is currently the most common cause of SSIs causing as many as 37% of cases of SSIs in community hospitals with methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) of particular concern.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2014 to December 2014 in a rural tertiary care hospital of Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand state, India. Samples were collected using sterile cotton swabs from 269 patients clinically diagnosed with SSIs and were processed as per standard microbiological techniques. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using a modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.Results:Out of 1294 patients, 269 (20.8%) were found to have SSIs and samples were collected from them. Out of a total of 269 samples, 258 (95.9%) yielded bacterial growth and 267 bacterial isolates were obtained. S. aureus (45.3%) was the commonest organism followed by Escherichia coli (13.9%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.7%), and Proteus species (4.9%). Antimicrobial profile of S. aureus revealed maximum sensitivity to rifampicin, linezolid, teicoplanin, vancomycin, and amikacin whereas ampicillin, cefazolin, and gentamicin were found to be least sensitive.Conclusion:S. aureus played a predominant role in the etiology of SSIs in this hospital with MRSA being a major concern as the treatment options for such resistant strains are limited. Reduction in SSI rates can lead to both better clinical outcomes for patients and cost savings for hospitals. Adherence to strict infection control measures, maintenance of proper hand hygiene and optimal preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative patient care can surely reduce the incidence of SSIs. A multifaceted approach involving the surgical team, microbiologist, and the infection control team is required to provide quality surgical services.

An efficient watermarking technique for tamper detection and localization of medical images

With the exponential rise of multimedia technology and networked infrastructure, electronic healthcare is coming up a big way. One of the most important challenges in an electronic healthcare setup is the authentication of medical images, received by an expert at a far-off location from the sender. With an aim to address the critical authentication issue, this paper presents a fragile watermarking technique capable of tamper detection and localization in medical/general images. We divide the cover image into 4 × 4 non overlapping pixel blocks; with each block further sub-divided into two 4 × 2 blocks, called as Upper Half Block (UHB) and Lower Half Block (LHB). The information embedded in LHB facilitates tamper detection while as that embedded in UHB facilities tamper localization. The experimental results show that, in addition to tamper detection and localization capability, the proposed technique has lesser computational complexity when compared to other state-of-art techniques. Further, the proposed scheme results in average PSNR of 51.26 dB for a payload of one bit per pixel (1bpp) indicating that the watermarked images obtained are of high visual quality.

Evolution of Pharmacy Practice in Kenya

The imperative for pharmacists to become more patient centered is apparent and as clear as crystal, now more than ever. The work required to achieve the vision of pharmacists working in patient-oriented health care setup represents a transformational change in the evolution of the profession.

Fat Plug Myringoplasty Vs Trichloroacetic Acid Cauterization as Office Procedures for Managing Small Central Perforation

Introduction
 In a series of day care office procedures, techniques like fat plug myringoplasty and Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) cauterization are becoming increasingly popular for managing small central perforations now-a-days[Office1] . These are minor, cost effective procedures and have success rates that match success rates of conventional tympanoplasty[Office2] . The aim of this prospective randomized controlled trial, was to compare the effectiveness of fat plug myringoplasty and chemical cauterization in the management of small centrally located perforations of the pars tensa.
 Materials and Methods
 The study was carried out over a period of 2 years on 62 patients selected from ENT OPD in our tertiary health care setup of central India. All the selected patients were grouped into two using a random allocation software EPi Info7.1.1.14. Group A included those who underwent fat plug myringoplasty while group B were those who underwent TCA cauterization.
 Results
 At 6 months follow up there was closure of perforation in 29 out of 30(96.6%) patients of group A and 29 out of 32(91%) patients of group B. In both groups success was defined by closure of perforation. Comparison of results was done using Fisher Exact Test. The difference between the success rates of the two procedures was statistically insignificant with p value of 0.6624, indicating that both the office procedures are equally effective and can be used according to the needs of the patients.
 Conclusion
 These office procedures can revolutionize the protocol of tympanoplasty which has an obvious higher morbidity and more days of absenteeism as compared to these minor procedures.

Renal Energy Metabolism Following Acute Dichloroacetate and 2,4-Dinitrophenol Administration: Assessing the Cumulative Action with Hyperpolarized [1-13C]Pyruvate MRI.

Numerous patient groups receive >1 medication and as such represent a potential point of improvement in today's healthcare setup, as the combined or cumulative effects are difficult to monitor in an individual patient. Here we show the ability to monitor the pharmacological effect of 2 classes of medications sequentially, namely, 2,4-dinitrophenol, a mitochondrial uncoupler, and dichloroacetate, a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibitor, both targeting the oxygen-dependent energy metabolism. We show that although the 2 drugs target 2 different metabolic pathways connected ultimately to oxygen metabolism, we could distinguish the 2 in vivo by using hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate magnetic resonance imaging. A statistically significantly different pyruvate dehydrogenase flux was observed by reversing the treatment order of 2,4-dinitrophenol and dichloroacetate. The significance of this study is the demonstration of the ability to monitor the metabolic cumulative effects of 2 distinct therapeutics on an in vivo organ level using hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging.

Abstract P356: Community Hypertensive Control is Improved by Pharmacists in a Closed-Loop Digital Healthcare Ecosystem: A Real World Study of Large Samples

Objective: To evaluate the effects of pharmacist-led digital care for hypertension management at retail pharmacies in China. Methods: For the past 3.5 years we have been developing and operating a digital healthcare ecosystem that formed a closed-loop of healthcare delivery by pharmacists to hypertensive patients at drug stores. The system included a set of BP tele-monitor, an App and a cloud engine that ran 5 proprietary algorithms to support personalized lifestyle coaching and medication guidance. Between Jan 1 st 2015 and Apr 30 th 2018, we served 2,683,865 walk-in patients in 8,730 pharmacies in 199 cities, and 54,032 of them were selected in this report following 4 inclusion criteria: 1) baseline BP was hypertensive (≥ 140/90 mm Hg), 2) the frequency of in-store hypertensive care was ≥ 1 time per month, 3) the intervention duration between the first- and last-time hypertensive care was ≥ 1 month, and 4) baseline characteristics were complete. Results: The study population demonstrated an average reduction of SBP by 12.2 mm Hg (baseline: 152.0 ± 14.4 mm Hg, last time: 139.8 ± 19.2 mm Hg, P< 0.001) and of DBP by 6.8 mm Hg (baseline: 89.7 ± 11.7 mm Hg, last time: 82.9 ± 12.7 mm Hg, P<0.001). Among them, 31,493 (58.3%) patients had improved hypertension stages with 24,326 (45.0%) of them returning to the normal BP range. The first time health intervention had the strongest BP control effect, accounting for 81.6% reduction of SBP and 78.0% reduction of DBP over time. Linear simulation revealed descending relationship of both SBP and DBP to time, and the concentration distributions were moving towards the normal BP level. The linear fitting functions were: SBP, y=141.222+9.613x -1 -0.025x (R 2 =0.835); DBP, y = 83.450+5.419x -1/2 -0.015x (R 2 =0.911). Conclusion: Pharmacists are valuable resources in a closed-loop digital healthcare setup to improve community hypertensive control.

Assessment of patient satisfaction in outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in West Bengal, India: a questionnaire based study

Background: Feedback is an important and integral part of any system. Perception of the beneficiaries in any healthcare setup provides impact for refining the system. The assessment of the patients’ satisfaction on different issues regarding healthcare services provides insight about the drawbacks of different healthcare systems. This could assist to upgrade the quality of services through different interventional measures. Present study evaluated the patient satisfaction in outpatient departments (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal.Methods: A total of 500 patients, attending different OPD in a tertiary care hospital were randomly selected for an observational, questionnaire based interview study, initiated in 2016. Some predictors for patients’ satisfaction like ‘outpatient department services’, ‘waiting time’, ‘cleanliness’, ‘privacy’ and ‘any problem faced during health checkup’, ‘overall satisfaction’ were evaluated.Results: Present study showed 78% of the study population was satisfied with the service received and 81% opined that clean environment was effectively maintained in the hospital premises and different outpatient departments. 83%, 84% and 75% of the patients were satisfied regarding the registration process, services received from the doctors and pharmacy, respectively. However, waiting time was too long and privacy was not maintained properly.Conclusions: Present study regarding patients’ satisfaction towards quality health care concluded that optimal care can be provided by combining both medical and social aspects, influencing the psychological factors of the patients. A separate system should be developed on assessment of “need of the patient” as well as guiding the patient for proper use of the health facilities.

PREVALENCE AND DRUG RESISTANCE IN ACINETOBACTER SP. ISOLATED FROM INTENSIVE CARE UNITS PATIENTS IN PUNJAB, INDIA

Objective: This study was designed to study the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Acinetobacter sp. as isolated from patients lodged in intensive care units (ICUs) of a tertiary care hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.Methods: The clinical samples were simultaneously streaked on Blood agar and MacConkey agar. The identification of the bacterial isolates was carried out with the aid of Gram stain, motility test and along with a combination of other commonly employed biochemical tests. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of all the bacterial isolates was carried out on Muller-Hinton agar through Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method.Results: Acinetobacter sp. formed a fair allowance contributing at 42% among all ICU culture positive samples. The respiratory tract samples had a major share at 63.15% for all samples attributed to be positive for Acinetobacter sp. nosocomial etiology. The antibiotic sensitivity pattern portrayed that more than 95% of Acinetobacter sp. isolates were multiple drug resistant (MDR) whereas >50% Acinetobacter sp. showed extensive drug resistant (XDR). The last resort for such Acinetobacter sp. nosocomial infections is left to colistin and polymyxin B.Conclusion: Acinetobacter sp. is a highly prevalent microorganism among ICU patients of Ludhiana, Punjab, India, while its potential to acquire resistance toward commonly used antibiotics represents it as a grave threat to the health-care industry, therefore signifying the need for its regular monitoring in the health-care setups.

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriage among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital in Bhubaneswar

Background: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a multidrug resistant organism emerging as a major cause of hospital acquired infection. In a healthcare setup a patient may acquire MRSA through the hands, clothes and equipments of health care workers. Screening of health care workers colonised with MRSA will be helpful in preventing the spread of this organism in a hospital. With this background the present study was undertaken to estimate the carriage rate of MRSA among healthcare workers in our hospital.Methods: Nasal swabs were collected from 120 health care workers working in Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar during the study period of July- September 2017. The swabs were inoculated onto mannitol salt agar plates for isolation of Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA strains were identified by cefoxitin disc method. Antibiogram of MRSA strains was determined.Results: The prevalence of MRSA carriage among health care workers was 7.5% with the carrier rate being highest among nurses (10%). All the MRSA isolates were 100% resistant to penicillin. MRSA isolates were 90% resistant to amoxyclav, 60% to cotrimoxazole and erythromycin and 50% to clindamycin.Conclusions: Although the prevalence of MRSA among health care workers in our hospital is not alarming, it is important to emphasize the need for stringent hospital infection control policies to reduce the spread of MRSA to susceptible individuals.