Bath basins: who knows where evil lurks

This project was conducted in a thirty-two bed Level 3 NICU. Current practice in the NICU was to use a single bath basin for the duration of the baby's admission, or until the baby was big enough for a larger bath, and the basin was no longer necessary. Nineteen of the thirty basins (63%) that were cultured grew one or more types of bacteria. 84% (16/19) of the basins grew normal skin flora including coagulase negative Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium species, Bacillus species, and alpha haemolytic Streptococcus. MRSA was isolated from one of the basins (5%) and gram-negative bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli were isolated from 11% of the basins that grew.