Preventing contamination

I recently read the article “Acinetobacter baumannii: An Emerging Multidrug-Resistant Pathogen in Critical Care” (February 2008:15–26). In my experience with burn patients coming back from overseas, we put all of them in cohort status until cultures came back negative for Acinetobacter baumannii. Cultures were taken during the admission process. Burns that occurred in Iraq were contaminated with Acinetobacter baumannii at the time of injury due to dirt being embedded into the wound bed. In general we did not allow flowers, plants, balloons, or stuffed animals in the patients’ rooms because all were sources of contamination. All visitors were expected to follow the isolation procedures that were posted on the door. When a group of patients arrived at the same time they were cohorted in double rooms or even our 4-bed room. When cultures came back negative the cleared patient was moved to another room and cohort status was...