Introduction to A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections In Acute-Care Hospitals: 2022 Updates.

Since the initial publication of A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals in 2008, the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has continued to be a national priority. Progress in healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and implementation science research has led to improvements in our understanding of effective strategies for HAI prevention. Despite these advances, HAIs continue to affect ∼1 of every 31 hospitalized patients, leading to substantial morbidity, mortality, and excess healthcare expenditures, and persistent gaps remain between what is recommended and what is practiced.The widespread impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on HAI outcomes in acute-care hospitals has further highlighted the essential role of infection prevention programs and the critical importance of prioritizing efforts that can be sustained even in the face of resource requirements from COVID-19 and future infectious diseases crises.The Compendium: 2022 Updates document provides acute-care hospitals with up-to-date, practical expert guidance to assist in prioritizing and implementing HAI prevention efforts. It is the product of a highly collaborative effort led by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission, with major contributions from representatives of organizations and societies with content expertise, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society (PIDS), the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the Society for Hospital Medicine (SHM), the Surgical Infection Society (SIS), and others.

SHEA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) White Paper Series: Practical approaches for the prevention of central-line-associated bloodstream infections.

This document is part of the "SHEA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) White Paper Series." It is intended to provide practical, expert opinion, and/or evidence-based answers to frequently asked questions about CLABSI detection and prevention in the NICU. This document serves as a companion to the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) Guideline for Prevention of Infections in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Patients. Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are among the most frequent invasive infections among infants in the NICU and contribute to substantial morbidity and mortality. Infants who survive CLABSIs have prolonged hospitalization resulting in increased healthcare costs and suffer greater comorbidities including worse neurodevelopmental and growth outcomes. A bundled approach to central line care practices in the NICU has reduced CLABSI rates, but challenges remain. This document was authored by pediatric infectious diseases specialists, neonatologists, advanced practice nurse practitioners, infection preventionists, members of the HICPAC guideline-writing panel, and members of the SHEA Pediatric Leadership Council. For the selected topic areas, the authors provide practical approaches in question-and-answer format, with answers based on consensus expert opinion within the context of the literature search conducted for the companion HICPAC document and supplemented by other published information retrieved by the authors. Two documents in the series precede this one: "Practical approaches to Clostridioides difficile prevention" published in August 2018 and "Practical approaches to Staphylococcus aureus prevention," published in September 2020.

Test-to-Stay After SARS-CoV-2 Exposure: A Mitigation Strategy for Optionally Masked K-12 Schools.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the impact of a test-to-stay (TTS) program on within-school transmission and missed school days in optionally masked kindergarten through 12th grade schools during a period of high community severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission. METHODS: Close contacts of those with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection were eligible for enrollment in the TTS program if exposure to a nonhousehold contact occurred between November 11, 2021 and January 28, 2022. Consented participants avoided school exclusion if they remained asymptomatic and rapid antigen testing at prespecified intervals remained negative. Primary outcomes included within-school tertiary attack rate (test positivity among close contacts of positive TTS participants) and school days saved among TTS participants. We estimated the number of additional school-acquired cases resulting from TTS and eliminating school exclusion. RESULTS: A total of 1675 participants tested positive or received at least 1 negative test between days 5 and 7 and completed follow-up; 92% were students and 91% were exposed to an unmasked primary case. We identified 201 positive cases. We observed a tertiary attack rate of 10% (95% confidence interval: 6%-19%), and 7272 (89%) of potentially missed days were saved through TTS implementation. We estimated 1 additional school-acquired case for every 21 TTS participants remaining in school buildings during the entire study period. CONCLUSIONS: Even in the setting of high community transmission, a TTS strategy resulted in substantial reduction in missed school days in optionally masked schools.

Client attitudes toward virtual treatment court.

INTRODUCTION: As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many treatment courts shifted to offering teleservices. We sought to examine the barriers that clients faced when transitioning to virtual court and treatment, and how this transition impacted their perceptions of the treatment court experience. METHODS: The National Center for State Courts administered an online survey between January 1, 2021, and July 31, 2021, deployed to state and local court administrators, which resulted in 1356 unique client responses from 121 courts. The survey measured attitudes about the treatment court process, including interactions with the judge, the behavioral health treatment staff, and treatment groups, as well as barriers to virtual and in-person court. We hypothesized that clients with fewer technological barriers to virtual service, who shifted to virtual court or treatment, would report more positive attitudes to this service delivery. RESULTS: Clients felt more comfortable participating in virtual court sessions than in-person sessions but were less likely to feel like the judge was familiar with their case during virtual court sessions. From the treatment perspective, clients felt more connected with other group members and reported greater benefit from treatment staff when treatment services were delivered in-person, but clients felt less anxious when treatment groups were virtual. CONCLUSIONS: Even though virtual experiences were more comfortable than in-person experiences for clients, the results are nuanced and show preference for some in-person connections as they transitioned to virtual connections. Future research should examine how to improve client connections with staff/group members during virtual court or treatment sessions, particularly as courts and treatment providers are likely to continue some services virtually into the future.

Test-to-Stay After Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 Schools.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the safety and efficacy of a test-to-stay program for unvaccinated students and staff who experienced an unmasked, in-school exposure to someone with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Serial testing instead of quarantine was offered to asymptomatic contacts. We measured secondary and tertiary transmission rates within participating schools and in-school days preserved for participants. METHODS: Participating staff or students from universally masked districts in North Carolina underwent rapid antigen testing at set intervals up to 7 days after known exposure. Collected data included location or setting of exposure, participant symptoms, and school absences up to 14 days after enrollment. Outcomes included tertiary transmission, secondary transmission, and school days saved among test-to-stay participants. A prespecified interim safety analysis occurred after 1 month of enrollment. RESULTS: We enrolled 367 participants and completed 14-day follow-up on all participants for this analysis. Nearly all (215 of 238, 90%) exposure encounters involved an unmasked index case and an unmasked close contact, with most (353 of 366, 96%) occurring indoors, during lunch (137 of 357, 39%) or athletics (45 of 357, 13%). Secondary attack rate was 1.7% (95% confidence interval: 0.6%-4.7%) based on 883 SARS-CoV-2 serial rapid antigen tests with results from 357 participants; no tertiary cases were identified, and 1628 (92%) school days were saved through test-to-stay program implementation out of 1764 days potentially missed. CONCLUSION: After unmasked in-school exposure to SARS-CoV-2, even in a mostly unvaccinated population, a test-to-stay strategy is a safe alternative to quarantine.

Reliability of nonlocalizing signs and symptoms as indicators of the presence of infection in nursing-home residents.

Antibiotics are among the most common medications prescribed in nursing homes. The annual prevalence of antibiotic use in residents of nursing homes ranges from 47% to 79%, and more than half of antibiotic courses initiated in nursing-home settings are unnecessary or prescribed inappropriately (wrong drug, dose, or duration). Inappropriate antibiotic use is associated with a variety of negative consequences including Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), adverse drug effects, drug-drug interactions, and antimicrobial resistance. In response to this problem, public health authorities have called for efforts to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing in nursing homes.

Multisociety statement on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination as a condition of employment for healthcare personnel.

This consensus statement by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA), the Association for Professionals in Epidemiology and Infection Control (APIC), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) recommends that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination should be a condition of employment for all healthcare personnel in facilities in the United States. Exemptions from this policy apply to those with medical contraindications to all COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States and other exemptions as specified by federal or state law. The consensus statement also supports COVID-19 vaccination of nonemployees functioning at a healthcare facility (eg, students, contract workers, volunteers, etc).

Standardized Vaccine-Hesitant Patients in the Assessment of the Effectiveness of Vaccine Communication Training.

OBJECTIVES: To determine if training residents in a structured communication method elicits specific behaviors in a laboratory model of interaction with vaccine-hesitant parents. STUDY DESIGN: Standardized patients portraying vaccine-hesitant parents were used to assess the effectiveness of training in the Announce, Inquire, Mirror, Secure (AIMS) Method for Healthy Conversations. Blinded pediatric residents were pseudorandomized to receive AIMS or control training and underwent pre- and post-training encounters with blinded standardized patients. Encounters were assessed by blinded raters using a novel tool. Participant confidence and standardized patient evaluations of the participants' general communication skills were assessed. RESULTS: Ratings were available for 27 AIMS and 26 control participants. Statistically significant increases in post-training scores (maximum = 30) were detected in AIMS, but not in control, participants (median, 21.3 [IQR, 19.8-24.8] vs 18.8 [IQR, 16.9-20.9]; P < .001). Elements (maximum score = 6) with significant increases were Inquire (0.67 [IQR, 0-1.76] vs -0.33 [IQR, -0.67 to 0.33]; P < .001); Mirror (1.33 [IQR, 0 to 2] vs -0.33 [IQR, -0.92 to 0]; P < .001) and Secure (0.33 [IQR, 0 to 1.67] vs -0.17 [IQR, -0.67 to 0.33]; P = .017). Self-confidence increased equally in both groups. Standardized patients did not detect a difference in communication skills after training and between groups. Internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of the assessment tool were modest. CONCLUSIONS: Standardized patients proved useful in studying the effectiveness of structured communication training, but may have been limited in their ability to perceive a difference between groups owing to the predetermined encounter outcome of vaccine refusal. AIMS training should be studied in real-world scenarios to determine if it impacts vaccine acceptance.

Variability in Culture-Negative Peritonitis Rates in Pediatric Peritoneal Dialysis Programs in the United States.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: International guidelines suggest a target culture-negative peritonitis rate of <15% among patients receiving long-term peritoneal dialysis. Through a pediatric multicenter dialysis collaborative, we identified variable rates of culture-negative peritonitis among participating centers. We sought to evaluate whether specific practices are associated with the variability in culture-negative rates between low- and high-culture-negative rate centers. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: Thirty-two pediatric dialysis centers within the Standardizing Care to Improve Outcomes in Pediatric End Stage Renal Disease (SCOPE) collaborative contributed prospective peritonitis data between October 1, 2011 and March 30, 2017. Clinical practice and patient characteristics were compared between centers with a ≤20% rate of culture-negative peritonitis (low-rate centers) and centers with a rate >20% (high-rate centers). In addition, centers completed a survey focused on center-specific peritoneal dialysis effluent culture techniques. RESULTS: During the 5.5 years of observation, 1113 patients had 1301 catheters placed, totaling 19,025 patient months. There were 620 episodes of peritonitis in 378 patients with 411 catheters; cultures were negative in 165 (27%) peritonitis episodes from 125 (33%) patients and 128 (31%) catheters. Low-rate centers more frequently placed catheters with a downward-facing exit site and two cuffs (P<0.001), whereas high-rate centers had more patients perform dialysis themselves without the assistance of an adult care provider (P<0.001). The survey demonstrated that peritoneal dialysis effluent culture techniques were highly variable across centers. No consistent practice or technique helped to differentiate low- and high-rate centers. CONCLUSIONS: Culture-negative peritonitis is a frequent complication of maintenance peritoneal dialysis in children. Despite published recommendations for dialysis effluent collection and culture methods, great variability in culture techniques and procedures exists among individual dialysis programs and respective laboratory processes.

Pediatric research priorities in healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial stewardship.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a pediatric research agenda focused on pediatric healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial stewardship topics that will yield the highest impact on child health. PARTICIPANTS: The study included 26 geographically diverse adult and pediatric infectious diseases clinicians with expertise in healthcare-associated infection prevention and/or antimicrobial stewardship (topic identification and ranking of priorities), as well as members of the Division of Healthcare Quality and Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (topic identification). METHODS: Using a modified Delphi approach, expert recommendations were generated through an iterative process for identifying pediatric research priorities in healthcare associated infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. The multistep, 7-month process included a literature review, interactive teleconferences, web-based surveys, and 2 in-person meetings. RESULTS: A final list of 12 high-priority research topics were generated in the 2 domains. High-priority healthcare-associated infection topics included judicious testing for Clostridioides difficile infection, chlorhexidine (CHG) bathing, measuring and preventing hospital-onset bloodstream infection rates, surgical site infection prevention, surveillance and prevention of multidrug resistant gram-negative rod infections. Antimicrobial stewardship topics included ß-lactam allergy de-labeling, judicious use of perioperative antibiotics, intravenous to oral conversion of antimicrobial therapy, developing a patient-level "harm index" for antibiotic exposure, and benchmarking and or peer comparison of antibiotic use for common inpatient conditions. CONCLUSIONS: We identified 6 healthcare-associated infection topics and 6 antimicrobial stewardship topics as potentially high-impact targets for pediatric research.

Rotavirus vaccination in the neonatal intensive care units: where are we? A rapid review of recent evidence.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Rotavirus is a leading cause of viral acute gastroenteritis in infants. Neonates hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are at risk of rotavirus infections with severe outcomes. The administration of rotavirus vaccines is only recommended, in the United States and Canada, upon discharge from the NICU despite rotavirus vaccines being proven well tolerated and effective in these populations, because of risks of live-attenuated vaccine administration in immunocompromised patients and theoretical risks of rotavirus vaccine strains shedding and transmission.We aimed to summarize recent evidence regarding rotavirus vaccine administration in the NICU setting and safety of rotavirus vaccines in preterm infants. METHODS: We conducted a rapid review of the literature from the past 10 years, searching Medline and Embase, including all study types except reviews, reporting on rotavirus vaccines 1 and 5; NICU setting; shedding or transmission; safety in preterm. One reviewer performed data extraction and quality assessment. RECENT FINDINGS: Thirty-one articles were analyzed. Vaccine-derived virus shedding following rotavirus vaccines existed for nearly all infants, mostly during the first week after dose 1, but with rare transmission only described in the household setting. No case of transmission in the NICU was reported. Adverse events were mild to moderate, occurring in 10-60% of vaccinated infants. Extreme premature infants or those with underlying gastrointestinal failure requiring surgery presented with more severe adverse events. SUMMARY: Recommendations regarding rotavirus vaccine administration in the NICU should be reassessed in light of the relative safety and absence of transmission of rotavirus vaccine strains in the NICU.

A Process for Assessing Products for Infection Prevention in Health Care Settings: A Framework From the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Infection control is a complex task that spans people, products, and practices in diverse settings. For years, the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) has provided advice and guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how best to prevent infections. These recommendations have focused largely on health care delivery practices and occasionally on general categories of products. With an influx of novel infection control products and growing use of these products by frontline clinicians, an efficient process for developing transparent, rigorous product recommendations that includes myriad data sources was necessary. To address this gap, the CDC asked HICPAC to develop a process that would help inform committees considering product-related recommendations. This article describes the process to develop this approach and provides an outline of how the tool may be used when products with infection control claims are recommended in guidelines or recommendations for infection prevention.