Safety and efficacy of combining obstetric and noninfectious gynecologic hospital patients

Unoccupied obstetric beds and unused delivery rooms represent inefficient use of hospital facilities and loss of revenue, both of which adversely affect the quality of care rendered patients. Hartford Hospital has permitted the admission of obstetric and noninfectious gynecologic patients to the same patient care areas of the hospital as well as use of delivery rooms by both groups of patients. Elaborate surveillance of these patients by the epidemiology section for a 1-year period (July 1974-July 1975) demonstrated no increase in the incidence of hospital-acquired infections associated with this combined approach as compared with the more traditional separation system of maternity and nonmaternity patients.