Less contact isolation is more in the ICU: con

Excerpt

Nearly half of all hospital-acquired infections (HAI) occur in intensive care units (ICU) [1]. Among HAIs, those caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) are associated with poor patient outcomes. The ICU setting involves multiple facilitators for the development of antimicrobial resistance: loss of physiological barriers, high transmission risk, and high ecological antibiotic pressure (an average of 70% of patients in ICU are prescribed antibiotics [2]). MDRO may be transmitted from patient-to-patient via staff hands, from the environment or event directly from person to person. Furthermore, ICU represents a hub in the hospital network and MDRO can spread from the ICU to other wards, other hospitals, or long-term care facilities, where patients are discharged [3]. …