A large-scale community disaster occurs and clients must share hospital rooms due to the rapid influx of new victims. Which room assignments are appropriate in this situation? Select all that apply.

Question

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When clients must be housed together in less than ideal circumstances, those infected with the same causative pathogens can be placed together. However, a client who is infectious should not be placed with an immunosuppressed client (eg, on steroids/chemotherapy, HIV positive, new post-operative, multiple chronic co-morbidities, splenectomy, diabetes, very young/elderly). Every client in the hospital is on universal precautions; therefore, there should be no concern about placing a vulnerable post-operative client in the same room where standard precautions are being taken for another client. In a disaster setting, clients of different age groups can be placed in the same room together so long as both are stable and noninfectious (even if this is not socially acceptable). (Option A) Though both clients are on contact isolation, they are infected with different organisms and this places them at risk for cross-infection. (Option C) By around age 4, clients with sickle cell disease have some level of immunosuppression as their spleens are dysfunctional due to infarctions from the sickling episodes. The spleen then fails to carry out protective phagocytosis, especially to encapsulated bacteria (eg, streptococcus pneumoniae). Educational objective: Clients infected with different organisms cannot be placed together in the same room (due to risk of cross-infection). An infectious client should not be housed with an immunocompromised one.

A Large-Scale Community Disaster Occurs and Clients Must Share Hospital