COVID-19

Maine health officials relied on an automated system to provide contact tracing for COVID-19 to a relatively sparse and spread out population. It worked.

Mark Beeston: “Infection preventionists are a key component and a key gatekeeper in UVC technology and where it goes. Their recommendations are key and as clinical nurse leaders may be looking at providing additional tools, they want to consult with their infection prevention team.”

The concern is not only that COVID-19 significantly increases the burden to healthcare facilities during an already busy season, but that the potential for more testing in patients with non-specific respiratory virus symptoms could further strain testing capacity.

Taken together, the studies, published in JAMA Cardiology, say that the disease can possible cause long-term damage to the heart even in patients who exhibited only mild symptoms from COVID-19.

Jody Feigel, RN, MSN: “You find when you’re at home, you roll out of bed, you get your coffee, you immediately get on your computer, and you just work. When we’re at the hospital, we have a lot of interruptions and a lot of times they’re good interruptions, sometimes not so much. And we head out to see whatever fires need to be put out.”

Despite a clear record of violations across the country, amid a culture where sick staff were asked to show up for work, lawmakers in several states have also potentially disincentivized improvement of infection control standards in long-term care facilities by providing legal liability protections ahead of time.

A telework-ready infection preventionist is an IP who continues to support their facility if they also end up in quarantine. Teleworking like so many other aspects of nursing is something we just needed to jump into. No training, no guidebook, no manual.

Nancy Moureau, PhD, RN, CRNI, CPUI, VA-BC: “We see the competency of a vascular access specialist or team validated by the outcomes, by the level of infection with their patients, with other complications that may be present.”

The webinar ran well over the hour it had been scheduled for and drew at least 2500 viewers who watched it on average for 71 minutes. And there were 422 questions from the audience afterward.

Charles P. Gerba, PhD: “Unfortunately, standard procedures for testing and registration by regulatory agencies of CADs (continuously active sanitizers or disinfectants) as disinfectants useful in preventing exposure to disease causing microorganism transmission has only taken place in recent years.”

Nancy Moureau: “Our priority is to minimize infections or potentially even to eliminate them. We want complications to be history. In order to achieve those goals, I see the vascular access specialist or the vascular access teams as being in a partnership with the infection preventionist.”

Many factors make the isolation precautions for diseases like COVID-19 more complex than typical droplet or airborne definitions.

There’s been a sharp increase in sanitizers that claim to use ethanol, but instead have methanol—or wood alcohol—in them, according to the FDA.

Many patients in the study who did not require hospitalization experienced prolonged or persistent symptoms, nonetheless. In addition, the absence of underlying medical conditions does not automatically mean patients will not experiences these longer lasting symptoms.

Maureen Spencer, RN, M.Ed.: “The World Health Organization did come out and said that they support the concept that this is droplet and airborne. And what that does is it changes our approach for infection prevention.”

With inadequate disinfection practices, healthcare workers are much more likely to acquire pathogens on their hands after touching these surfaces, potentially passing them on to patients.

As the pandemic seems not to abate, patients will start to present to the hospital after delaying crucial primary and preventive care visits, meaning sicker non–COVID-19 infected patients, with the potential for increased CLABSI and CAUTI rates.

Jack Regan, PhD: “We’ve never developed a vaccine against coronavirus. And because of that, the question is how efficacious is this vaccine going to be? How long is the immunity going to last?”

Supply chain issues are a larger, more systemic aspect of healthcare and national preparedness. Although IPs may not be able to fix them individually, there are ways we can ensure the safety of our hospitals.

Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC: “Asking the patient to wear a mask, which is something that we do in our facility, can be challenging at that point, especially as labor progresses, and you’re to the point of pushing. That right there offers a set of unique challenges for both the patient and the staff in the room.”

It will also be necessary to again train other professionals the way IPs have historically trained them about infection prevention, because a lot of the old rules had to be set aside when COVID-19 surged.

The U.S. government will pay Pfizer and BioNTech $1.95 billion upon the receipt of the first 100 million doses, following US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization or approval. The U.S. government also can acquire up to an additional 500 million doses.

We have much work to do in terms of risk communication and awareness. This is a good example of how quickly exposures can happen in the workplace when we focus only on employee-to-customer interactions or healthcare worker-to-patient interactions.

Julie McKinney, PhD: “If you’re going to disinfect, you’re going to let it sit for three minutes and then you’re going to wipe it. If you’re going to sanitize, you only have to leave it for 30 seconds and then wipe.”

Infection control at LTCFs needs to be a balanced approach that addresses the risk of infection, and not just the treatment of infection. Money is saved when this approach is used.