Bacterial contamination of hospital bed-control handsets in a surgical setting: a potential marker of contamination of the healthcare environment.

INTRODUCTION: Patients undergoing colorectal surgical resections have a high incidence of surgical site infection (SSI). Many patient-specific risk factors have been recognised in association with SSI in such patients, but environmental contamination is increasingly recognised as a contributor to hospital-acquired infection (HAI). This study set out to describe the bacterial contamination of the patient environment, using hospital bed-control handsets, as they are frequently handled by both staff and patients and represent a marker of environmental contamination. PATIENTS AND METHODS: On two unannounced sampling events, 1 week apart, 140 bacteriological assessments were made of 70 hospital bed control handsets within a specialist colorectal surgical unit.
RESULTS: Of the handsets examined, 67 (95.7%) demonstrated at least one bacterial species (52.9% grew 1, 30% grew 2 and 12.9% grew 3 or more bacterial species). Of these, 29 (41.4%) bed-control handsets grew bacteria known to cause nosocomial infection, including 22 (31.4%) handsets which grew Enterococcus spp., 9 (12.9%) which grew MRSA, 2 (2.9%) which grew MSSA, 2 (2.9%) which grew coliforms, and 1 (1.4%) handset which grew anaerobes. At 1-week follow-up, 31 bed-control handsets showed evidence of contamination by the same bacterial species.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed high levels of bacteria known to cause HAI, contaminating hospital bed-control handsets in a surgical setting. Further study is now required to confirm whether hospital environmental contamination is causally involved in SSI.