Infections and Antibiotic Use among Patients at Boston City Hospital, February, 1967

Abstract

In a survey of infections and antibiotic use at the Boston City Hospital in February, 1967, 26.3 per cent of the patients had infections considered to be community-acquired, and 15.5 per cent had infections assumed to be acquired in the hospital. The prevalence rates of infections did not differ greatly from those found in a similar survey conducted at this hospital in 1964. Gram-negative bacilli were isolated much more often from nosocomial than from community-acquired infections. The frequency of isolation of Staphylococcus aureus in hospital-acquired infections has decreased by more than 50 per cent since 1964, whereas gramnegative bacilli and enterococci have increased appreciably. Antibiotic use at this hospital had changed very little in 1967 as compared with 1964.