The impact of active screening strategies to identify and control multidrug-resistant organism transmission in healthcare settings

Abstract

Introduction: Screening for multidrug-resistant bacterial organisms (MDRO) has been used to identify colonized patients and initiate contact precautions to prevent transmission to other patients. However, the benefit is gained from screening is unclear. We investigated the effectiveness of different strategies to identify MDRO transmission. Methods: We undertook a post hoc analysis of a prospective observational study in our hospital. Hospital inpatients were actively screened for MDRO including vancomycin resistant E. faecium (VRE), and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing E. coli (ESBL-EC) and K. pneumoniae (ESBL-KP) across a 15-month period, with non-screening MDRO isolates from cl..