Collateral benefit of screening patients for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at hospital admission: Isolation of patients with multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria

Background Surveillance at hospital admission for multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria (GNB) is not often performed, potentially leaving patients carrying these organisms unrecognized and not placed in transmission precautions until they develop infection. Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities screen all admissions for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and place positive patients in contact precautions. We assessed how often patients with MDR GNB in clinical cultures obtained within 30 days following admission would have been in contact precautions because of a positive MRSA admission screen. Methods MRSA screening and MDR GNB culture results were extracted from a database of patients admitted to all VA acute care medical facilities from January 2009-December 2012. Results Of patients with MDR GNB-positive cultures within 30 days following admission, up to 44.3% (dependent on bacterial species) would have been in contact precautions because of a clinical positive admission MRSA nasal screen. Admissions with a positive MRSA screen had odds for MDR GNB in a culture 2.5 times greater than those with a negative screen (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4-2.6). Odds ratios were 2.4 (95% CI, 2.3-2.5) for MDR Enterobacteriaceae , 2.7 (95% CI, 2.5-2.9) for MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and 4.3 (95% CI, 3.8-4.8) for MDR Acinetobacter spp. Conclusions Patients may be serendipitously placed in contact precautions for MDR GNB when isolated for a positive admission MRSA screen.