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Serratia marcescens—A Marker for an Infection Control Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

T.J. Marrie ,
M.A. Noble ,
E.V. Haldane ,
N.H. Duncan ,
I. Paterson ,
D. Carruthers ,
A. Barry ,
A. West  and
S. McCormick
T.J. Marrie*
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
M.A. Noble
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
E.V. Haldane
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
N.H. Duncan
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
I. Paterson
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
D. Carruthers
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
A. Barry
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
A. West
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
S. McCormick
Affiliation:
Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
*
Department of Microbiology, 5788 University Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CanadaB3H 1Y3
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Abstract

An infection control program was instituted at The Victoria General Hospital, an 800-bed acute care hospital, in July 1977. Serratia marcescens had infected or colonized (I/C) 225 to 232 patients yearly for each of the three previous years. Since this organism is usually acquired nosocomially, we decided to use Serratia I/C as a marker for our infection control program. During the years 1977 to 1980, we identified and eliminated several reservoirs of Serratia (contaminated urine measuring containers, urometers, diabetic urine testing equipment and in-use contamination of 2% Hibitane). Readmission of previously I/C patients proved to be an increasingly important reservoir. During 1980, only 120 patients were I/C, and gentamicin-resistant isolates of S. marcescens had dropped from 44% in 1977 to 4.4% in 1980. Use of Serratia as a marker enabled us to monitor the efficacy of our infection control program and allowed us to prove to our health care workers the usefulness of many of the measures we introduced.

Type
Original-Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , March/April 1982 , pp. 134 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1982

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