The effect of a full-time infection control nursing service in the prevention of multidrug-resistant organism in the orthopedic ward

BACKGROUND: Our aim was to evaluate the effect of setting up a full-time infection control nursing service on reducing the prevalence of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) in the orthopedic ward. METHODS: From January 2015 to March 2019, routine prevention and control measures were taken for patients infected/colonized with MDRO in this ward, which was set as the pre-intervention period. The intervention period was from April 2019 to June 2021. The study was designed to evaluate whether the establishment of a full-time infection control nursing service could reduce the positive density of MDRO in the hospital by using an interrupted time-series model of a quasi experimental study. RESULTS: There were 11,759 patients during pre-intervention period and 8142 patients during intervention period. The total number of MDRO isolated before intervention was 177, of which 145 were obtained in hospital and 32 were brought in from outside hospital. The total number of MDRO isolated after intervention was 47, of which 29 were obtained in hospital and 18 were brought in from outside hospital. Before intervention, the positive density of MDRO in the orthopedic ward showed an increasing trend (β(1) = 0.02, P = 0.003). After intervention, the positive density of MDRO showed a downward trend (β(3) = − 0.05, P = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: The establishment of the full-time infection control nursing service in the orthopedic ward can effectively reduce the nosocomial prevalence of MDRO.