1211. Microbiologic Evaluation of Mobile Phones and Hands of Healthcare Professionals in Two Intensive Care Units in a Brazilian University Hospital

Abstract

BackgroundHealthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a worldwide concern because of their high morbidity, mortality, and associated costs. Mobile phones (MP) are an important work tool in the healthcare setting, but they can be a reservoir of nosocomial pathogens if not carefully cleaned and cause re-contamination of the healthcare professional’s (HCP) hands. We aimed to evaluate bacterial colonization of HCP’s hands and their respective MPs.MethodsA cross-sectional study was performed in two Intensive Care Units (ICUs), an internal medicine and a burn unit, of a Brazilian tertiary university hospital. These units were chosen because of their different hand hygiene (HH) compliance. We assessed HH and MP handling practices by an electronic inquiry and collected samples from the dominant hand (DH) by the sterile bag technique and of MPs by moistened sterile swab. MALDI-TOF was used for bacterial identification and Dilution Agar (DA) was used to screen Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) susceptibility to carbapenems and colistin.ResultsForty-seven HCPs were evaluated; of whom, 30% were medical residents, 19% nurses, 17% nurse-technicians, 17% physiotherapists, 13% cleaning staff, and 4% radiology technicians.Overall, 85% of HCPs reported use of MP at work, 26% had never cleaned it, and 34% reported optimal HH compliance practices. All of them believed that MPs can have HAIs agents. DH culture showed 94% of colonization and the most common Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and GNB were S. epidermidis (n = 17∕44) and A. baumannii complex (n = 11∕44), respectively. MP were colonized in 89% of the cases and the most common GPB and GNB were S. epidermidis (n = 16∕42) and Pseudomonas spp (n = 9∕42), respectively. Overall, in the screening 38% of GNB were resistant to meropenem and 22% to colistin. A. baumannii was the most common meropenem (n = 4) and colistin (n = 2) resistant GNB. In the two units, 32% of HCPs had the same microorganism species isolated in the MP and in the DH (Table 1).ConclusionThere was a high rate of bacterial colonization on the MP and DH of HCPs and some of these bacteria were carbapenem or colistin resistant. A policy for MP handling in the healthcare setting should be implemented in order to avoid cross-contamination between the MP and the hand of HCPs. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.