Relationship between Environmental Conditions and Nosocomial Infection Rates in Intensive Care Unit

Intensive care units (ICUs) are the most important departments of a hospital regarding nosocomial infections. Many risk factors contribute to the infection rates in ICUs. These risk factors can be related to the patient or environment. Environmental conditions are important in infection control. Nurse/patient ratio has been shown to be related to nosocomial infection rates. This study aimed to investigate the effects of some of these factors on nosocomial infection rates in ICUs.The effects of changes in environmental conditions, such as area around the patient bed, temperature, humidity, and nurse/ patient rates on nosocomial infection rates were examined retrospectively in the ICU from January 2012 to June 2014 in this study.
The total infection rate, ventilator associated pneumonia rate, and catheter-related urinary tract infection rate were found to be 7.67%, 14.53%, and 5.47%, respectively. Despite a statistically significant relationship between all infection rates and the size of the area around the patient bed, no relationship was detected between the nurse/patient rates and the infection rates. Between temperature and humidity, only humidity had a statistically significant relationship with catheterrelated urinary tract infection rates.
Nurse/patient ratio is important in ICUs but the other factors related to the quality of the work and infection control are also important. The size of the area around the patient bed has been shown to have an important effect on infection control. This study reported a direct relationship of the size of the area around the patient bed with the infection rates. More studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between temperature and humidity and nosocomial infection rates.