Photo Credit: microgen

A regional collaborative involving universal decolonization in long-term care facilities and targeted decolonization among hospitalized patients in contact precautions is associated with better multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO)-related outcomes, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Gabrielle M. Gussin, PhD-candidate, and colleagues evaluated whether a decolonization collaborative was associated with reduced regional MDRO prevalence, incident clinical cultures, infection-related hospitalizations, costs, and deaths. Their analysis included data from 16 hospitals, 16 nursing homes (NHs), and three long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs). Compared with baseline, decolonization was associated with a decrease in mean MDRO prevalence (NHs: 63.9% to 49.9%; LTACHs: 80.0% to 53.3%; hospitalized patients in contact precautions: 64.1% to 55.4%). Mean monthly incident MDRO clinical cultures changed from 2.7 to 1.7 among participating NHs, from 1.7 to 1.5 among nonparticipating NHs, from 25.5 to 25.0 among participating hospitals, and from 12.5 to 14.3 among nonparticipating hospitals. Benefits were seen for infection-related hospitalizations, associated hospitalization costs, and associated hospitalization deaths.