Hot off the press from the DiRTE Lab, the newest addition to the DCASIP, Lab Director Bobby Warren and his team take us through their work studying environmental contamination from patients with CDI.
Bobby Warren, DiRTE Lab (the newest branch of DCASIP) Director, and team assessed environmental contamination of inpatient rooms housing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in a dedicated COVID-19 unit. Contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was found on 5.5% (19/347) of surfaces via reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and 0.3% (1/347) of surfaces via cell culture. Environmental contamination is uncommon in hospitals rooms; RNA presence is not a specific indicator of infectious virus.
DICON faculty and SSI expert Dr. Jessie Seidelman and DICON Medical Director D. Dev Anderson provided an update on SSIs to the journal Infection Disease Clinics of North America.
With DICON Co-Medical Director Dr. Sonali Advani leading, the DICON IP team took a look at the impact of COVID-19 response on hospital infection prevention programs and practices within the DICON network.
Initial assessments of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) preparedness revealed resource shortages and variations in infection prevention policies across US hospitals. The follow-up survey revealed improvement in resource availability, increase in testing capacity, and uniformity in infection prevention policies. Most importantly, the survey highlighted an increase in staffing shortages and use of travel nursing.
During the past 18 years DICON has provided epidemiological data and support to more than 40 hospitals in 6 states while simultaneously learning a great deal about the challenges and opportunities for infection prevention in community hospitals.
DICON has been a long-term and valuable partner with my hospitals and me in our joint efforts to prevent hospital-acquired infections and improve patient safety.
