Hand hygiene compliance affected MRSA colonization in single-patient and open-model rooms alike in a neonatal ICU, but average daily census only affected infants in single-patient rooms, according to research published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Further, single-patient rooms did not reduce rates of MRSA colonization, late-onset sepsis or death in a retrospective cohort study conducted by Samuel Julian, MD, of the department of pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, and colleagues in a tertiary referral center.
“In this analysis, average census positively correlated with MRSA colonization only within the single-patient room configuration,” the researchers wrote. “Increased vigilance is required during periods of high census, with particular attention paid to hand hygiene, the only variable that affected MRSA colonization.”
In a unit organized into single-patient and open-unit rooms, the team examined clinical data sets including bed location and microbiology results from 1,823 patients (55,166 patient-days) during 29 months. The investigators calculated differences in outcomes between configurations using chi-square tests and Cox regression.
Abstract and full study here
