Novel hospital curtains with antimicrobial properties: a randomized, controlled trial.

Design. Privacy curtains that separate patient care areas in hospitals may play an important role in the transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens. The aim of this randomized, controlled trial was to assess the effectiveness in a clinical setting of curtains incorporating a complex element compound (CEC) with antimicrobial properties.Setting. Twenty-one rooms in a surgical intensive care unit (ICU) and 9 rooms in a medical ICU were randomly selected to receive either a new standard curtain or a new identical-looking CEC curtain. Fifteen rooms received CEC curtains and 15 received standard curtains.Methods. Cultures were performed of samples that were collected from curtains twice a week for 4 weeks (23 days). Contamination was determined according to standard microbiologic methods. Time to contamination was assessed with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and survival analysis. Incidence rates of contamination were compared using Poisson regression.Results. The median time to first contamination was 7 times...