A paucity of data exists regarding the effectiveness of daily Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing in non–intensive care unit (ICU) settings.

To evaluate the effectiveness of daily CHG bathing in a non-ICU setting to reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enteroccocus (VRE) hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), compared with daily bathing with soap and water.

Quasi-experimental study design; the primary outcome was the composite incidence of MRSA and VRE HAIs. Clostridium difficile HAI incidence was measured as a nonequivalent dependent variable with which to assess potential confounders.

Four general medicine units, with a total of 94 beds, at a 719-bed academic tertiary-care facility in Providence, Rhode Island.

A total of 7,102 and 7,699 adult patients were admitted to the medical service in the control and intervention groups, respectively. Patients admitted from January 1 through December 31, 2008, were bathed daily with soap and water (control group), and those admitted from February 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010, were bathed daily with CHG-impregnated cloths (intervention group).

Daily bathing with CHG was associated with a 64% reduced risk of developing the primary outcome, namely, the composite incidence of MRSA and VRE HAIs (hazard ratio, 0.36 [95% CI, 0.2-0.8]; P = .01). There was no change in the incidence of C. difficile HAIs (P = .6). Colonization with MRSA was associated with an increased risk of developing a MRSA HAI (hazard ratio, 8 [95% CI, 3-19]; P < .001).

Daily CHG bathing was associated with a reduced HAI risk, using a composite endpoint of MRSA and VRE HAIs, in a general medical inpatient population.

To determine the etiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa surgical-site infections following cardiac surgery.

University teaching hospital.

Those with wound cultures that grew P. aeruginosa after cardiac surgery performed from 1999 to 2001.

Medical records and operating room (OR) records of patients with P. aeruginosa cardiac surgical-site infections from 1999 to 2001 were reviewed. Healthcare workers involved with two or more cases were interviewed and examined. Specimens for environmental cultures were obtained from the ORs and cardiac surgical equipment. Cardiac surgery cases were observed and postoperative care and the cleaning of surgical instruments were investigated. OR air handling system records during the epidemic period were reviewed. Molecular fingerprinting of available P. aeruginosa isolates from infected patients and a healthcare worker was done.

There were five P. aeruginosa cardiac surgical-site infections from January to August 2001, compared with no such infections from 1999 to 2000. All were adult patients. One cardiac surgeon with onychomycosis operated on all five cases. He did not routinely double glove. The involved fingernail grew P. aeruginosa. Three P. aeruginosa patient isolates were available for pulsed-field gel electrophoresis; two were identical to the isolate from the involved surgeon's onychomycotic nail. No environmental OR cultures grew P. aeruginosa. The surgeon's culture-positive nail was completely removed. There have been no P. aeruginosa surgical-site infections among cardiac surgery patients since this intervention.

At least two cases of a cluster of P. aeruginosa surgical-site infections resulted from colonization of a cardiac surgeon's onychomycotic nail.

To describe two cases of nosocomial legionellosis and discuss the epidemiology of this infection.

Potable water was collected from multiple sites. Patient and environmental isolates were characterized by the Legionella slide agglutination test and monoclonal antibody subtyping. Concordance among isolates was confirmed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

A 713-bed university-affiliated hospital.

There was widespread contamination of potable water with Legionella pneumophila during a period of major construction; cooling towers were without growth of Legionella. One patient's isolate was the same by PFGE as the environmental isolate collected from the water faucet in his room. Control measures included superheating water used in all patient care areas to 75°C for 72 hours and flushing superheated water through faucets and showers; cleaning shower heads with a sonicator washer; and raising the hot water storage tank temperature from 43°C to 52°C. After these interventions, repeat environmental cultures over the next 6 months were without growth of Legionella, and no further cases of nosocomial legionnaires' disease were documented. An association between legionnaires' disease and construction is postulated. Heightened surveillance and preventive measures may be warranted during periods of excavation on hospital grounds or when potable water supplies are otherwise shut down and later repressurized.