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Microbial bioburden of inpatient and outpatient areas beyond patient hospital rooms
- Source :
- Infection control and hospital epidemiology. 43(8)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Objective:To investigate the frequency of environmental contamination in hospital areas outside patient rooms and in outpatient healthcare facilities.Design:Culture survey.Setting:This study was conducted across 4 hospitals, 4 outpatient clinics, and 1 surgery center.Methods:We conducted 3 point-prevalence culture surveys for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, Clostridioides difficile, Candida spp, and gram-negative bacilli including Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumanii, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in each facility. In hospitals, high-touch surfaces were sampled from radiology, physical therapy, and mobile equipment and in emergency departments, waiting rooms, clinics, and endoscopy facilities. In outpatient facilities, surfaces were sampled in exam rooms including patient and provider areas, patient bathrooms, and waiting rooms and from portable equipment. Fluorescent markers were placed on high-touch surfaces and removal was assessed 1 day later.Results:In the hospitals, 110 (9.4%) of 1,195 sites were positive for 1 or more bacterial pathogens (range, 5.3%–13.7% for the 4 hospitals) and 70 (5.9%) were positive for Candida spp (range, 3.7%–5.9%). In outpatient facilities, 31 of 485 (6.4%) sites were positive for 1 or more bacterial pathogens (range, 2% to 14.4% for the 5 outpatient facilities) and 50 (10.3%) were positive for Candida spp (range, 3.9%–23.3%). Fluorescent markers had been removed from 33% of sites in hospitals (range, 28.4%–39.7%) and 46.3% of sites in outpatient clinics (range, 7.4%–82.8%).Conclusions:Surfaces in hospitals outside patient rooms and in outpatient facilities are frequently contaminated with healthcare-associated pathogens. Improvements in cleaning and disinfection practices are needed to reduce contamination.
- Subjects :
- Microbiology (medical)
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
medicine.medical_specialty
Epidemiology
Bioburden
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Outpatients
Patients' Rooms
Medicine
Outpatient clinic
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
0303 health sciences
Cross Infection
Inpatients
biology
030306 microbiology
business.industry
Acinetobacter
biology.organism_classification
Hospitals
Disinfection
Infectious Diseases
Emergency medicine
Candida spp
business
Design culture
Clostridioides
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15596834 and 0899823X
- Volume :
- 43
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Infection control and hospital epidemiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e3d9b1e6ec2660cd5b481233f2724da5