“…1 Hospitals provide care for the most medically vulnerable and immunocompromised individuals in society; however, despite governmental safety regulations and well-established safe food handling practices, foodborne outbreaks in healthcare settings do occur and are associated with an increased risk of death compared with other settings. 2 Listeria monocytogenes is uniquely suited to cause serious nosocomial infections, given its tendency to contaminate certain ready-to-eat food products, ability to replicate at refrigerator temperatures, and propensity to cause invasive infection in immunocompromised patients and pregnant women. Stem-cell/solid-organ transplant patients have a 2,584-fold greater risk than the general population of developing serious illness from L. monocytogenes infection, while patients with hematologic malignancy, HIV/AIDS, end-stage renal disease, diabetes, alcoholism, and age greater than 65 years have risks of developing serious illness from Listeria that range from 7.5 to 1,384 over that of the general population.…”