Multidrug-Resistant Organisms on Patients’ Hands

Participants' hands were swabbed at admission, after two weeks and then monthly for up to six months or until they were discharged.

“Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) are increasingly prevalent in post–acute care (PAC) facilities. Increased contact between health care workers, the environment, and patients in PAC facilities can increase the risk of MDRO cross-transmission because PAC patients may need assistance with activities of daily living and are encouraged to be mobile outside of their room for rehabilitation, dining, and other recreational activities. Much more than other anatomic sites, patients’ hands are more likely to come in contact with environmental surfaces, health care workers’ hands, and other patients in PAC facilities.”

Twenty-four percent of study participants had at least one multidrug-resistant organism, or superbug, on their hands when they checked in. Thirty-four percent of participants had superbugs on their hands during follow-up visits. Those superbugs can be passed on to other frail residents and healthcare workers.

"We’ve been educating healthcare workers for decades about hand hygiene, and these numbers show it’s time to include patients in their own hand hygiene performance and education," says lead author Lona Mody, MD, MSc. in a university-issued press release. Mody is the associate chief for clinical and translational research at the University of Michigan Geriatrics Center and a research scientist at the Ann Arbor VA Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center.

“Our study provides critical and emerging evidence that patient hand hygiene is a greatly underappreciated strategy for MDRO reduction efforts in PAC facilities as well as acute care facilities.”

To read the original article from the JAMA Network, Click Here