How Safe is Your Health Care Centre?

Recent research has shown that nosocomial infections are on the increase despite education to minimize its effect. The aim of this research was to determine type of isolates, quantity, and their antibiogram on formites at the Central Regional Hospital Swabs were taken from door handles, working surfaces, beds and taps from the various wards, consulting rooms, OPD, laboratory and surgical theatre. Serial dilution was used in quantification, MacConkey and Blood agars were used in isolation whilst the Kirby Bauer method was used in the Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing. The results from this research show that the main microorganism present on fomites at the Central Regional Hospital in Cape Coast was Bacillus cereus (45.2%)with the main pathogenic bacterial isolates being Staphylococcus aureus (14.42%) and Escherichiacoli(8.65%). In all, a total of nine different types of bacteria were isolated. The fomite with the highest isolation was the door handles whereas the section of the hospital from which most bacteria was isolated from was the various washrooms. However, there was no significant difference between counts of isolates from the different surfaces, (p=0.06).