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Tip of the week: Younger nursing home residents at risk

Infection Control Monitor, July 27, 2007

If you are trying to screen patients who come into your hospital for mutli-drug resistant organisms, a new study incidates that one high-risk group may be younger residents living at long-term care facilities.

Although a majority of the patients in the study with multidrug-resistant acinetobacter (MDR-ACIN) were coming from long-term care facilities, these patients were not primarily seniors as one might assume, says study author Lisa Maragakis, assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Interestingly, the average age was close to 50," she says.

Although there were some elderly patients, there was also a group of younger patients in their 30s and 40s who had chronic or debilitating conditions, (e.g., paraplegia) individuals with gunshot wounds, and patients who were on a chronic ventilator. "These were generally very ill, very susceptible patients," she says.

To learn more, go to www.hcpro.com/content/71463.cfm. The cost is $10. Briefings on Infection Control subscribers received this story with their subscriptions.

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