Interactions of Environmental and Human Microbial Communities in a Pediatric Oncology Hospital

Microorganisms that colonize hospital environments play an important role in the transmission of hospital acquired infections (HAI) and multi-drug resistant organisms. Previous studies examining microorganisms in the hospital environment have been limited by reliance on targeted culture-based methods resulting in potentially missed or unrecognized organisms. Evidence now suggests that using microbiome analysis offers an innovative strategy that may improve our understanding of HAI and how best to prevent them. This pilot longitudinal observational study aims to characterize the taxonomic composition of microbial communities on environmental surfaces and people in these environments prior to and following the introduction of patients, caregiver, and hospital staff to newly constructed inpatient care areas at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH). This proposed study is uniquely characterized by evaluating the hospital environment of a pediatric immunocompromised oncology patient population that has not been studied in the past using advanced molecular techniques such as microbiome analysis. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: * To describe the pattern of microbial communities of the hospital environment before, during and after patient occupancy of a newly constructed hospital space. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: * To describe the similarity or difference of environment microbial communities to that of the humans occupying this environment in a newly occupied hospital space. * To describe the pattern in environment microbial communities after each step of disinfection (manual cleaning with chemical disinfectant and Ultraviolet light disinfection machine) after patient discharge from the inpatient hospital environment. * To evaluate the correlation between environmental Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) measures and organism bioburden.