title: Bacterial colonization of nursing home residents on admission to an acute care hospital.
abstract: Very little data obtained in a prospective, controlled fashion examines the prevalence of colonization with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and yeast in nursing home residents on admission to acute-care hospitals. We cultured swabs taken from all nursing home patients admitted to a medical center on selected days of the week. Age-matched control patients were also enrolled. Nasal, pharyngeal, and rectal or perineal swabs were done within 24 h of admission. Susceptibility to gentamicin was used as a marker for antibiotic resistance. Most nursing home patients (45/56) were colonized with gentamicin-resistant isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci; in the control group, 24 patients only carried these organisms (P = 0.0001 chi square). The only resistant Gram-negative bacteria were recovered from control patients (3/56 vs. 0/56 nursing home residents; P = 0.12, Fisher's exact test). Yeast were common colonizers of both nursing home residents and controls but were more frequently recovered from nursing home patients (P = 0.03, chi square). Although colonization by antibiotic-resistant staphylococci of nursing home residents on admission to an acute-care hospital was common, resistant Gram-negative bacilli were not found in this study. Additional investigations are needed to determine the risk of infection/ colonization with resistant organisms in this population.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Disease Section, Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Thurn
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Crossley
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerdts
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015003:Yeasts / Q000302:isolation & purification*