Provision of safe patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic despite shared patient rooms in a tertiary hospital.
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control
; 11(1): 61, 2022 04 21.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35449118
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the disruption of healthcare systems. Vienna General Hospital (VGH), a tertiary hospital located in Austria, ran at almost full capacity despite high levels of community SARS-CoV-2 transmission and limited isolation room capacity. To ensure safe patient care, a bundle of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures including universal pre-admission screening and serial SARS-CoV-2 testing during hospitalization was implemented. We evaluated whether testing as part of our IPC approach was effective in preventing hospital outbreaks during different stages of the pandemic.METHODS:
In this retrospective single center study, we analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results of cases admitted to VGH between a low (15/05/2020-01/08/2020) and a high incidence period (15/09/2020-18/05/2021). Outcomes were the diagnostic yield of (a) admission screening, (b) the yield of serial testing during hospitalization and (c) the occurrence of healthcare-associated COVID-19 (HA-COVID-19) and SARS-CoV-2 related hospital outbreaks.RESULTS:
The admission test positivity rate was 0.2% during the low and 2.3% during the high incidence phase. Regarding test conversions, 0.04% (low incidence phase) and 0.5% (high incidence phase) of initially negative cases converted to a positive test result within 7 days after admission The HA-COVID-19 incidence rate per 100,000 patient days was 1.0 (low incidence phase) and 10.7 (high incidence phase). One COVID-19 outbreak affecting eight patients in total could be potentially ascribed to the non-compliance with our IPC protocol.CONCLUSION:
Testing in conjunction with other IPC measures enabled the safe provision of patient care at a hospital with predominantly shared patient rooms despite high case numbers in the community.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
COVID-19
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article