| The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine what types of organisms and number of colonies were cultured from medical supplies used for home care in the home site. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze results according to the type of medical supply used, the number of days and times the supply was reused, and the home site where the supply was used. Cultures of multiple use and opened and unused medical supplies indicated staphylococcus, coagulase negative; gram positive rod and enterococcus were the predominant organisms and colonies. More organisms and colonies were present on multiple use supplies. The number of organisms and colonies increased with the time supplies were in the home but not according to the number of times used. Recommendations were made to replicate this study using a larger sample and to collect specimens from the identical type and number of supplies at each home site. |
