Infections decline in private ICU rooms

MONTREAL, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Hospital-acquired infections declined after intensive care unit rooms were converted to private rooms, researchers in Canada found.

Dana Y. Teltsch, a doctoral candidate at McGill University in Montreal and colleagues compared the rates of patient-acquired infections before and after a change from multibed rooms to single, private rooms.

For the control group, patients who were admitted to a similar multibed facility at a second university hospital were used as a comparison hospital.

The researchers compared infection rates for a total of 19,343 intensive care unit admissions at both hospitals from 2000 to 2005.

The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that in the private rooms, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus decreased by 47 percent, the rate of Clostridium difficile acquisition decreased 43 percent and yeast acquisition decreased 51 percent.

The average length of stay for patients in the multiroom intensive care unit increased steadily during the study, while the average length of stay in the private rooms fluctuated, but did not increase overall and the average length of stay in the private rooms dropped by 10 percent.

"Conversion to single rooms can substantially reduce the rate at which patients acquire infectious organisms while in intensive care," the study authors say in a statement.