Reducing Staphylococcus aureus infections in the neonatal intensive care unit

Objective Our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) saw an increase in Staphylococcus aureus (SA) infections—methicillin-resistant SA (MRSA) infections increased from 2.1/10,000 patient days (PD) to 5.1/10,000 PD, and methicillin-sensitive SA (MSSA) infections from 1.2/10,000 PD to 3.9/10,000 PD. This...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of perinatology 2022-11, Vol.42 (11), p.1540-1545
Main Authors: Nickel, Noura, Brooks, Sandra, Mize, Chris, Messina, Allison
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
692/699/255/1318
692/700/459/1748
Algorithms
Cross Infection - epidemiology
Cross Infection - prevention & control
Decolonization
Drug resistance
Environmental factors
Gestational age
Hospitals
Humans
Hygiene
Infant, Newborn
Infections
Intensive care
Intensive Care Units, Neonatal
Intervention
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Methicillin
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Neonatal care
Neonates
Newborn babies
Optimization
Patients
Pediatric Surgery
Pediatrics
Personal hygiene
Personal protective equipment
Prevention
Quality control
Quality improvement
Quality Improvement Article
Retrospective Studies
Staphylococcal Infections - epidemiology
Staphylococcal Infections - prevention & control
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus infections
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective Our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) saw an increase in Staphylococcus aureus (SA) infections—methicillin-resistant SA (MRSA) infections increased from 2.1/10,000 patient days (PD) to 5.1/10,000 PD, and methicillin-sensitive SA (MSSA) infections from 1.2/10,000 PD to 3.9/10,000 PD. This quality improvement project aimed to decrease the rates of SA infections to less than 2.0/10,000 PD, and to determine the rate of SA decolonization. Methods Infection prevention interventions targeted patient factors (SA surveillance, patient cohorting, decolonization protocol), provider factors (provider cohorting, enhanced hand hygiene) and environmental factors (room structure, equipment optimization). Results The rates of MRSA and MSSA infections decreased to 0.6/10,000 PD and 0.7 infections/10,000 PD respectively. Persistent decolonization of SA was successful in 67% of colonized patients. Conclusions Specific interventions targeting patient, provider, and environmental factors, including the implementation of a SA decolonization protocol, were successful in decreasing the incidence of SA infections in neonates.
ISSN:0743-8346
1476-5543
DOI:10.1038/s41372-022-01407-4