Nursing homes that regularly use universal decolonization methods like chlorhexidine bathing to clean the skin and iodophor to clean the nose reduces the chance of a patient being transferred to a hospital due to infection.
These methods when used in combination with one another also helps lower the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria within a nursing home environment, a study from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published in the New England Journal of Medicine Oct. 10 found.
The 18-month study focused on 28 nursing homes across California, half of which adhered to a normal bathing routine and the other half which employed the decolonization method specifically using a chlorhexidine soap and an iodophor nasal swab.
The results also revealed that strict adhereance to the decolonization bathing routine "didn’t need to be perfect to prevent hospitalization and resistant organisms," according to the release. From the study, 87 percent of nursing home staff used the soap as intended and this was 67 percent for the nasal swab, but doing it at all is what is beneficial researchers noted.
"Our findings suggest that changing to an antiseptic soap and cleaning the nose with iodophor is a highly effective way to prevent dangerous infections in nursing homes," Susan Huang, MD, one of the study’s senior investigators and faculty member of UC Irvine's School of Medicine stated in an Oct. 10 news release. "Compared with other healthcare strategies, this is a relatively simple win for nursing homes, and we hope nursing homes will want to adopt it."