Data from five countries show that the hospitals with the highest prevalence of highly resistant microorganisms (HRMOs) implemented the fewest infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, researchers reported this week in Antimicrobial Resistance& Infection Control.
For the study, researchers with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Study Group for Nosocomial Infections collected and analyzed survey responses from six hospitals in five countries (Austria, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and the Netherlands) from 2014 to 2017. The surveys asked the participating hospitals to provide prevalence rates for carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPK), carbapenemase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CPPA), and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), along with detailed information on IPC measures. IPC policies were compared with international IPC guidelines from ESCMID.
The self-reported prevalence of CPK per year was low in the Austrian and Dutch hospitals and high in the Turkish and Greek hospitals. CPPA was highly prevalent in the Turkish hospital only, while the prevalence of VRE in four hospitals—except the Austrian hospitals, which reported lower prevalence numbers—was more evenly distributed. The Dutch hospital reported implementing the most IPC measures (21), and the Turkish and Greek hospitals implemented the fewest (14 and 7, respectively). The hospitals with the lowest HRMO rate also reported a higher adherence to their own IPC policy.
"This study showed that in general, hospitals make different choices in their IPC policy, which could be due to the endemicity of specific HRMO or the lack of logistic or financial resources of a hospital," the study authors wrote. They suggest that investments in higher adherence to IPC policy could help reduce HRMO prevalence.