Background
Because patients can remain colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
for long periods of time, VRE may spread from one health care facility to another.
Methods
Using the Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst, an agent-based model of patient flow
among all Orange County, California, hospitals and communities, we quantified the
degree and speed at which changes in VRE colonization prevalence in a hospital may
affect prevalence in other Orange County hospitals.
Results
A sustained 10% increase in VRE colonization prevalence in any 1 hospital caused a
2.8% (none to 62%) average relative increase in VRE prevalence in all other hospitals.
Effects took from 1.5 to >10 years to fully manifest. Larger hospitals tended to have
greater affect on other hospitals.
Conclusions
When monitoring and controlling VRE, decision makers may want to account for regional
effects. Knowing a hospital's connections with other health care facilities via patient
sharing can help determine which hospitals to include in a surveillance or control
program.
Key Words
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Article Info
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
