Do Single-Patient Rooms Reduce Risk for Hospital-Acquired Infections?

Single-occupancy hospital rooms are often preferred by patients and families, but limited data are available to determine if they reduce the rates of hospital-acquired infection compared with multiple-occupancy rooms.

Taking advantage of a one-day move of patients from an older hospital with multiple-occupancy rooms to a newly constructed 350-bed facility with all single rooms, Canadian researchers described the before-and-after incidence of common multidrug-resistant organism colonization events and health care–associated infections. Comparisons were made between the period 27 months before the move and the period 36 months after the move. Screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus…