Comparative Analysis of Sampling Methods for Assessing Bacterial Contamination on Hospital Partition Curtains: Moistened Swabs versus RODAC Agar Plates

BACKGROUND: Partition curtains are one of the main sources of nosocomial infection in the hospital environment. However, there are no unified standards for monitoring medical textiles across different countries or regions. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of 2 different sampling methods – swabbing vs RODAC (replicate organism detection and counting) agar plate – in terms of detection of bacterial contamination, and their suitability as monitoring methods for partition curtains and other medical textiles. MATERIAL/METHODS: A total of 24 partition curtains were selected by stratified random sampling. The swabbing technique and RODAC agar plates were the chosen sampling methods. The number of colony-forming units was calculated and colony morphologies and strains on the plates were observed and identified after culturing. RESULTS: A total of 192 samples were collected. Of them, 161 pathogenic strains were isolated via the swabbing technique and 309 pathogenic strains were isolated using the RODAC agar plates. The swabbing technique had a higher proportion for gram-positive bacteria (P=0.0004), while RODAC agar plates had a higher proportion for gram-negative bacteria (P=0.72). The detection of bacterial contamination rates using the swabbing technique was superior to that of the RODAC agar plate method (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The swabbing technique offers more advantages in terms of detection of bacterial contamination rates and gram-positive bacteria, while the RODAC agar plate is more sensitive for detection of gram-negative bacteria.