title: Algorithm to reduce unnecessary isolation days in patients with a history of colonization by antimicrobial-resistant organisms.
abstract: To determine the need of isolation precautions upon admission, we created and tested an algorithm based on a total of 474 patients with a history of carriage of an antibiotic-resistant organism. Using the algorithm upon patient admission reduced unnecessary isolations by almost 60% while maintaining a high sensitivity to predict persisting antibiotic-resistant organism colonization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: mertzd@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mertz
authors.forename: Khuloud
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nuri
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loeb
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000382:microbiology*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D010356:Patient Isolation / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Carrier; MRSA; Management; Precautions; Screening; VRE