Oh, oops, do I have VRE? Is that bad???

Tonight's one of those nights when I come home and feel as if I need my own decon shower outside of my house. We had a dialysis patient who was in CHF. No big deal right? Well, when I called the hospital we were transferring him to (we don't do dialysis) they said, "Oh yeah, Mr. X, we know him really well. He's VRE+, right." I'm all, "Um, well, um, I don't know, he never mentioned it."

I hate when patients neglect to mention that they have something contagious. We are really good about the obvious things (For example: cough and fever=mask; open gushing wounds=gloves) but not so good at guessing the others. So that's why, when you got something, TELL US!!! It's not that hard and it keeps other patients from getting said contagious thing and keeps us from taking stuff home. Man o man.