A new study that maps the spread of bacteria in a hospital's first year of existence will help healthcare leaders better understand the dynamics of a hospital's microbiome and actions they can take to decrease harmful contact.
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, began two months prior to the opening of the University of Chicago's Center for Care and Discovery and continued for 10 months. Researchers swabbed hospital surfaces in patient care rooms, including bedrails and faucet handles, and collected more than 10,000 samples from 252 patients. They also gathered samples from each unit's nursing staff, swabbing their hands, gloves, shoes, nursing station countertops, pagers, shirts, chairs, computers, landlines and cell phones. Microbial DNA was detected in 6,523 samples.
