Environmental monitoring followed by clinical surveillance was successful in uncovering previously unrecognized cases of hospital-acquired Legionella pneumonia.

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Sustained feedback on hand washing failed to produce a sustained improvement. Live observers were associated with increased hand washing, even when they did not offer feedback. Hand washing decreased when the patient-to-nurse ratio increased.

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Long-term treatment with doxycycline did not improve outcomes of GWVIs at 1 year.

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To determine the frequency of isolation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at Veterans Administration Medical Centers, 163 hospitals were surveyed; 137 responded. Between 1975 and 1984, the number of Veterans Administration Medical Centers with known MRSA increased from 3 to 111. This increase was geographically widespread and occurred in hospitals of all sizes. In Veterans Administration Medical Centers, isolation policies for MRSA-infected patients were (% of hospitals using): strict (19%), contact (52%), site-related (28%), no isolation (1%). For patients colonized with MRSA policies were: strict (15%), contact (44%), site-related (35%), and no isolation (6%). Only 41% of Veterans Administration Medical Centers reported discharging known MRSA-colonized patients to nursing homes. Most attempts to eradicate MRSA carriage used trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole plus rifampin with or without bacitracin ointment; success rates were low. MRSA incidence is increasing at Veterans Administration Medical Centers across the United States. Improved regimens to eliminate MRSA carriage are needed.