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Strict Versus Modified Isolation for Prevention of Nosocomial Transmission of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bruce S. Ribner ,
Martha N. Landry  and
Gail L. Gholson
Bruce S. Ribner*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Hermann Hospital, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas
Martha N. Landry
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Hermann Hospital, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas
Gail L. Gholson
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Program in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Hermann Hospital, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas
*
Department of Hospital Epidemiology, Hermann Hospital, 1203 Ross Sterling Avenue, Houston, TX 77030
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Abstract

Patients colonized or infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Surgical Intermediate Care Unit were placed either in Strict Isolation or cared for with modified isolation precautions. The assignment was determined by the unit in which they were hospitalized. Units were changed from one form of isolation to the other and served as their own controls.

Over a 4-month study period, the rate of MRSA transmission did not change when the type of isolation precautions were altered. The ratio of colonized to infected patients also remained constant. Infected patients were usually first detected by clinical specimens, while colonized patients were usually detected by surveillance cultures performed under the study protocol.

Following the study, all hospitalized patients with MRSA were placed in modified isolation precautions. Total new acquisitions of MRSA in the hospital have decreased over the subsequent 6-month period.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 7 , Issue 6 , June 1986 , pp. 317 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1986

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