By Healthcare Facilities Today

Using copper alloy touch surfaces in intensive care patient rooms cut the rate of healthcare-acquired infections (HAI) by more than half, according to a study published in the May issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Items such as bed rails, tables, IV poles and nurse call buttons made of copper alloy were installed in certain intensive care unit (ICU) rooms as part of the 11-month study at the Medical University of South Carolina, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients were randomly assigned to the rooms and cleaning procedures remained the same as for the conventional rooms at the hospitals.

The study found that the patients in the rooms with copper items developed HAI and/or a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) infection at a proportion of 7.1 percent, compared to 12.3 percent in the conventional ICU rooms. The proportion of patients developing HAI was 3.4 percent in the rooms with copper items and 8.1 percent in the conventional rooms, according to the study.

“Patients who suffer HAIs often stay in the hospital longer, incur greater costs, and unfortunately suffer a greater likelihood of dying while hospitalized,” said Cassandra D. Salgado, MD, Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and lead author of the study, in a press release. “Our study found that placement of items with copper surfaces into ICU rooms as an additional measure to routine infection control practices could reduce the risk of HAI as well as colonization with multidrug resistant microbes.”