Contact-mediated bacterial transmission and infection risk dynamics in a newly opened hospital ward

The hospital microbiome significantly influences patient recovery and clinical outcomes. However, the dynamics of microbial colonization and transmission following initial patient occupancy remain poorly understood. Here, we employed 16 S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the V3-V4 region (Illumina platform) to investigate bacterial community dynamics on surfaces within neurosurgery ward and patients as a new hospital became operational. Our results showed that bacterial colonization in hospital wards follows distinct site-specific patterns, after hospital opening, alpha diversity was significantly increased on floors and drawer handles but decreased on bedrails and faucet handles compared to preopening. Beta diversity analysis showed that surfaces frequently contacted by patients exhibited the greatest compositional turnover, such as bedrails, drawer handles, and faucet handles, bacterial communities in after-opening were more homogeneous across sites than preopening, indicating potential bacterial transmission. Moreover, we found that following patient admission, patient hand-derived microbiomes exert a significant influence on the bacterial communities in hospital wards, with a particularly pronounced impact on bedrails. Additionally, the potential pathogenic potential of the microbial community at the taxonomic level of bedrails in post-opening was significantly higher than preopening, which does not reflect direct clinical infection risk. Taken together, these findings underscore the critical role of human contact in shaping hospital microbiomes and highlight the importance of targeted infection control strategies to mitigate potential pathogen transfer.