Effect of hospital move to all private rooms on healthcare-associated infections

Editor's Note

The move to a new hospital with all single-patient rooms was associated with an immediate and durable reduction in the rates of nosocomial vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization as well as VRE infections, but not in  the rates of nosocomial Clostridioides difficile (CDI) or MRSA infections, this study finds.

During 36 months after the hospital move:

• nosocomial VRE colonization fell from 766 to 209
• nosocomial MRSA colonization dropped from 129 to 112
• VRE infections were reduced from 55 to 14
• CDI rates fell from 236 to 223, but it was not statistically significant
• MRSA infections increased from 27 to 37.

Single-patient rooms may help prevent nosocomial multidrug-resistant organism colonization, but their association with infection rates is likely due to community colonization rates and factors associated with the transition from colonization to infection, the researchers say.