BACTERIAL-COLONIZATION OF NURSING-HOME RESIDENTS ON ADMISSION TO AN ACUTE-CARE HOSPITAL

Very little data obtained in a prospective, controlled fashion examine s the prevalence of colonization with antibiotic-resistant bacteria an d yeast in nursing home residents on admission to acute-care hospitals . We cultured swabs taken from all nursing home patients admitted to a medical centre on selected days of the week. Age-matched control pati ents were also enrolled. Nasal, pharyngeal, and rectal or perineal swa bs were done within 24 h of admission. Susceptibility to gentamicin wa s used as a marker for antibiotic resistance. Most nursing home patien ts (45/56) were colonized with gentamicin-resistant isolates of coagul ase-negative staphylococci; in the control group, 24 patients only car ried 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 com mon colonizers of both nursing home residents and controls but were mo re frequently recovered from nursing home patients (P = 0.03, chi squa re). Although colonization by antibiotic-resistant staphylococci of nu rsing home residents on admission to an acute-care hospital was common , resistant Gram-negative bacilli were not found in this study. Additi onal investigations are needed to determine the risk of infection/colo nization with resistant organisms in this population.