Patients’ Medical Charts in Intensive Care Unit: A Potential Source of Nosocomial Infections

Authors

  • Roshan Thapa Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur
  • Eliza Thapa Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur
  • Anjana Singh Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur
  • Bharat Mani Pokharel Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Maharagunj, Kathmandu
  • Upendra Devkota National Institute of Neurological and Allied Sciences, Bansbari, Kathmandu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/jist.v21i1.16048

Keywords:

Intensive care unit, Nosocomial infection, Patients’ medical charts

Abstract

This  study  was  carried  out  to  determine  the  degree  of  contamination  of  patients’  medical  charts  in  ICU settings.  A total of 100 medical charts were randomly selected from ICU.  The swab samples were collected from  outer  surface  of  charts  with  sterile  swabs  moistened  with  sterile  normal  saline.  The swabs were immediately transferred to Trypticase soy broth and incubated aerobically for 48h and then subcultured  inMacConkey,  Blood  and  Eosin-methylene  blue  agars.  The isolates were identified by using standard microbiological and biochemical techniques.  Out  of  100  charts  sampled,  89%  charts  were  found  to  be contaminated  with  pathogenic  or  potentially  pathogenic  bacteria.  Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly isolated bacteria in ICU (n=32, 28.3%) followed by Citrobacter freundii (n=27, 24%), Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CoNS) (n=23, 20.3%) and Acinetobacter spp. (n=12, 10.7%).  It is concluded that medical chart contains pathogenic and potentially pathogenic bacteria. Thus, contaminated charts can act as vector of pathogenic bacteria and source of cross-infection in hospital.

Journal of Institute of Science and Technology

Vol. 21, No. 1, 2016, page: 48-51

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Published

2016-11-24

How to Cite

Thapa, R., Thapa, E., Singh, A., Pokharel, B. M., & Devkota, U. (2016). Patients’ Medical Charts in Intensive Care Unit: A Potential Source of Nosocomial Infections. Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 21(1), 48–51. https://doi.org/10.3126/jist.v21i1.16048

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Research Papers

License

The views and interpretations in this journal are those of the author(s). They are not attributable to the Institute of Science and Technology, T.U. and do not imply the expression of any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers of boundaries.

The copyright of the articles is held by the Institute of Science and Technology, T.U.