Impact of electronic alerts on isolation precautions for patients with multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Background: Health care workers' compliance with isolation precautions for patients colonized or infected with multidrug-resistant bacteria (MRB) is low.

Methods: In a 750-bed, acute care university hospital with a patient information system covering the entire hospital, a database that included all patients with MRB was created and was merged daily with the admission-discharge-transfer application. An electronic alert was generated for all new cases of MRB and for all transfers between wards and all readmissions of patients with MRB.