Analysis of surface contamination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in a health-care setting in the context of the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Hospital-onset coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection has been reported and is probably linked to ineffective implementation of infection prevention and control measures. Contaminated surfaces and air are considered a key part of the transmission dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome, influenza, and other organisms in hospitals. This study aimed to assess the extent and persistence of surface contamination with COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted for a period for 2 weeks from December 03, 2020, to December 16, 2020, in Kathua district of J and K, India. The environmental samples were taken from the patient care area that included COVID isolation ward and intensive care unit (ICU) as per the guidelines of WHO Protocol "Surface sampling of COVID-19: A practical "how to" protocol for health care and public health professionals after seeking copyright permission from the WHO. Universal standard precautions were strictly followed. Descriptive analysis was done using the MS-Excel and expressed in numbers and percentages. RESULTS: A total of 140 surface samples were taken, 70 each from the COVID ICU and isolation ward. The results of ten samples from the ICU turned out to be positive and 20 samples were positive from the isolation ward. Eleven (78.6%) out of the 14 samples taken from the corners of the ICU and isolation ward were found to be positive. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed surface contamination in the hospital setting both in COVID ICU and isolation ward particularly from the corners of the COVID ICU and isolation ward followed by the samples taken from the linen. Strict adherence to COVID appropriate behavior, increased frequency of disinfection in high-risk areas, and sensitization of the staff are mandatory to minimize the infection risk.

A descriptive survey on knowledge gap related to retinopathy of prematurity and its prevention and management among nurses in a tertiary care hospital.

Purpose: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of severe visual impairment of childhood affecting preterm babies. The disease is sensitive to the quality of neonatal nursing care provided to preterm neonates in any neonatal intensive care unit. (NICU). The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge gap among nurses related to ROP and its prevention and management working in NICU in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive survey, 53 nurses working in a selected NICU of a tertiary care hospital were enrolled. A pretested and validated self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge of nurses related to ROP. The questionnaire consisted of two main parts namely the demographic information and the knowledge questionnaire related to ROP related to risk factors of ROP, screening procedure, and nursing care to babies with ROP before, during, and after the procedure. Results: The majority of nurses were female with a mean age of 33.48 ± 5.85 years, having a median of 5 years of experience in NICU. Most of the nurses (38, 68%) had overall poor knowledge, followed by fair knowledge (21%) with the mean knowledge scores of 14.07 ± 2.06. No significant association between the overall knowledge scores and age, total professional experience in NICU, designation, and educational qualification of the nurses could be observed (P ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Most of the nurses working in the NICU had poor knowledge regarding ROP, necessitating the need for updating the knowledge of nurses related to ROP, its prevention, and management by disseminating information about the disease through seminars, and workshops and arranging in-house educational sessions on ROP.

Exploring the Design of Streaming Data Interfaces for Emergency Medical Contexts.

In this late-breaking work, we describe the design of an interface for displaying streaming vital sign data on a digital checklist used in the emergency medical setting of pediatric trauma resuscitation. We used feedback from interviews and participatory design workshops with clinicians to develop two prototypes of the streaming vital sign interface. We evaluated these prototypes in design-walkthroughs, finding that clinicians preferred the design displaying trend graphs for all four vital signs at once. We discuss how streaming data interfaces on interactive mobile devices can be used to provide situational awareness while unobtrusively supporting different levels of clinical experience.

Reducing Preoperative Waiting-time in a Pediatric Eye Operation Theater by Optimizing Process Flow: A Pilot Quality Improvement Project.

OBJECTIVE: To decrease the preoperative area waiting-time for children posted for eye surgery. METHODS: A pilot quality improvement project was conducted in a single paediatric eye operation theatre in our tertiary-care hospital. Operation theatre process flow was analyzed, baseline data was collected, and two Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were performed on consecutive days. Average and maximal waiting-time were recorded across six operation theatre days. RESULTS: The average and maximal waiting time at baseline were 221 and 390 minutes, respectively. After two rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, these were reduced to 29 (87% reduction) and 52 minutes (87% reduction) from baseline, respectively, and could subsequently be sustained. CONCLUSION: Preoperative waiting time in ophthalmic operation theatre was significantly reduced by simple process flow optimization, thereby improving quality of care.