Bacterial colonization of handheld devices in a tertiary care setting: a hygiene intervention study.

Frey, Pascal Marcel; Marti, Grischa Robert; Droz, Sara Christine; de Roche von Arx, Mirjam; Suter, Franziska Marta; Aujesky, Drahomir; Brugger, Silvio (2019). Bacterial colonization of handheld devices in a tertiary care setting: a hygiene intervention study. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, 8(97), p. 97. BioMed Central 10.1186/s13756-019-0546-y

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Background

Tablet computers are increasingly being used in hospital patient care and are often colonized with important human pathogens, while the impact of disinfection interventions remains controversial.

Method

In a prospective hygiene intervention study we consecutively sampled tablet computers exclusively used in a high-resource general internal medicine tertiary care setting with high routine hygiene measures. Our aim was to examine the change in colonizing bacteria on tablet computers before and after the introduction of a mandatory twice daily tablet disinfection intervention. Microbial identification was performed by conventional culture, and the association of bacterial colonization with the intervention was investigated using logistic regression.

Results

In a total of 168 samples we identified colonizing bacteria in 149 (89%) of samples. While the most commonly identified species were normal skin bacteria, found in 18 (11%) of samples was the most frequent potential pathogen. We did not detect any Enterococci or Enterobacteriaceae. The disinfection intervention was associated with substantially less overall bacterial colonization (odds ratio 0.16; 95%-CI 0.04-0.56), while specific colonization with was only slightly decreased (odds ratio 0.46; 95%-CI 0.16-1.29).

Conclusion

Our results indicate that a twice daily disinfection can still substantially reduce bacterial colonization of in-hospital tablet computers used in a high-resource and high hygiene setting.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of General Internal Medicine (DAIM) > Clinic of General Internal Medicine > Centre of Competence for General Internal Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of General Internal Medicine (DAIM) > Clinic of General Internal Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases > General Bacteriology

UniBE Contributor:

Frey, Pascal Marcel, Marti, Grischa Robert, Droz, Sara Christine, Suter, Franziska Marta, Aujesky, Drahomir, Brugger, Silvio

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

2047-2994

Publisher:

BioMed Central

Language:

English

Submitter:

Tobias Tritschler

Date Deposited:

26 Jul 2019 12:22

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:29

Publisher DOI:

10.1186/s13756-019-0546-y

PubMed ID:

31183077

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Bacterial colonization Hygiene intervention Tablet computers

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.131411

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/131411

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