More than 2,000,000 hospital acquired infections occur each year in the US, many of which are caused by Staphylococci. Approximately 600,000 MRSA acquisitions occur in the UK alone each year. Further, the prevalence of MRSA bacteremia is similar in the developed nations of Australia, the UK and US with rates seen between 25 to 50%. The transfer of microbes from patients to healthcare workers and vice versa has been studied to some extent while the effect of the built environment on this problem has been essentially undescribed. In this study we report results using a method developed for the routine detection and determination of the inherent staphylococcal burden found on commonly encountered/touched items in an ICU room within a hospital in order to develop an understanding as to whether or not the built environment might serve as a significant staphylococcal reservoir. The concentration of Staphylococci coincidentally encountered by patients and healthcare workers was measured by swabbing 11 surfaces in at total of 16 rooms at 3 hospitals over the course of 10 weeks. Objects evaluated included bed rails, nurses call buttons, overbed tray tables, arm rests of visitor chairs, IV poles and data input devices within the patient care arena. From an analysis of the 1760 objects the mean staphylococcal burden of an ICU room was 2,391 cfu/100cm² (range 0-186,000 cfu/100cm²). MRSA was also measured and found to occur at an average concentration of 22 cfu/100cm² with a range of 0-9000 cfu/100cm²observed. Objects located in closer proximity to patients had a higher staphylococcal burden with bed rails averaging the highest concentrations encountered at an average of 7,622 cfu/100cm²and 106 cfu/100cm² of MRSA in the rooms of the three hospitals evaluated. Other objects evaluated had lower total staphylococcal and MRSA burden in the following order: Chair > Call Button > Data Input Device > Overbed Tray Table> IV pole. Our data indicate that touch surfaces in ICU rooms serve as significant staphylococcal reservoirs that could transfer to patients, health care workers and visitors.