EMBARGOED UNTIL: Monday, September 19, 11:15 AM CDT
(Session 190, Paper K-1463)
Michael Ohl
University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, United States
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 319-338-0581 x 3534
There is growing recognition that the physical environment in hospitals is an important source of bacteria that cause serious healthcare-associated infections. This work demonstrates that the privacy curtains that separate patient-care areas in most hospitals are frequently contaminated with potentially-harmful bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus species (VRE). Contamination occurred rapidly: 12 of 13 (92%) freshly-washed curtains hung during the study were contaminated within a week. The most immediate implication of this work is that healthcare workers should wash their hands after touching privacy curtains and before touching the patient. There is a need for interventions to prevent bacterial contamination of hospital privacy curtains.
This work took place at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, IA and was funded by an unrestricted grant from PurThread, a maker of antimicrobial-resistant fabrics for use in healthcare settings. Findings are described in an abstract presented at 11:15 AM on September 19 at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Chicago.
Over a three week period, 180 swab cultures were obtained twice weekly from an 800cm2 area on the leading edge of 43 separate privacy curtains in 30 rooms (8 medical intensive care unit, 7 surgical intensive care unit, and 15 medical ward). Curtains were marked to determine when they were changed. Contamination with Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Enterococcus spp., vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), or aerobic gram-negative rods was determined by standard culture methods. To distinguish persistence of bacteria on curtains from recontamination with different bacterial populations, all VRE and MRSA were typed to determine genetic-relatedness
Of the 13 curtains placed during the study, 12 (92%) showed contamination within 1 week. Forty one curtains (95%) demonstrated contamination on at least one occasion. MRSA was isolated from 21% and VRE from 42% of curtains. Eight curtains were contaminated with VRE at more than one time point; 3 with persistence of a single genetic type and 5 with different types over time, suggesting recontamination. Overall, 119 of 180 (66%) cultures were positive for either S. aureus (26%), Enterococcus spp. (44%), or gram-negative rods (22%).