Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:43:43.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Quantifying Interhospital Patient Sharing as a Mechanism for Infectious Disease Spread

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Susan S. Huang*
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute, California
Taliser R. Avery
Affiliation:
the Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Yeohan Song
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kristen R. Elkins
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute, California
Christopher C. Nguyen
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute, California
Sandra K. Nutter
Affiliation:
University of California Irvine, Irvine, and the California Office of Quality Management-Research, Orange County Health Care Agency, Santa Ana, California
Curtis J. Condon
Affiliation:
University of California Irvine, Irvine, and the California Office of Quality Management-Research, Orange County Health Care Agency, Santa Ana, California
Michael T. Chang
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute, California
David Chrest
Affiliation:
Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
John Boos
Affiliation:
Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Georgiy Bobashev
Affiliation:
Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
William Wheaton
Affiliation:
Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Steven A. Frank
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, California
Richard Piatt
Affiliation:
the Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Marc Lipsitch
Affiliation:
Departments of Epidemiology, and Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Robin M. Bush
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, California
Stephen Eubank
Affiliation:
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Donald S. Burke
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Bruce Y. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
*
University of California Irvine Medical Center, Division of Infectious Diseases, 101 The City Drive South, City Tower, Suite 400, Zot Code 4081, Orange, CA 928683217 ([email protected])

Extract

Background.

Assessments of infectious disease spread in hospitals seldom account for interfacility patient sharing. This is particularly important for pathogens with prolonged incubation periods or carrier states.

Methods.

We quantified patient sharing among all 32 hospitals in Orange County (OC), California, using hospital discharge data. Same-day transfers between hospitals were considered “direct” transfers, and events in which patients were shared between hospitals after an intervening stay at home or elsewhere were considered “indirect” patient-sharing events. We assessed the frequency of readmissions to another OC hospital within various time points from discharge and examined interhospital sharing of patients with Clostridium difficile infection.

Results.

In 2005, OC hospitals had 319,918 admissions. Twenty-nine percent of patients were admitted at least twice, with a median interval between discharge and readmission of 53 days. Of the patients with 2 or more admissions, 75% were admitted to more than 1 hospital. Ninety-four percent of interhospital patient sharing occurred indirectly. When we used 10 shared patients as a measure of potential interhospital exposure, 6 (19%) of 32 hospitals “exposed” more than 50% of all OC hospitals within 6 months, and 17 (53%) exposed more than 50% within 12 months. Hospitals shared 1 or more patient with a median of 28 other hospitals. When we evaluated patients with C. difficile infection, 25% were readmitted within 12 weeks; 41% were readmitted to different hospitals, and less than 30% of these readmissions were direct transfers.

Conclusions.

In a large metropolitan county, interhospital patient sharing was a potential avenue for transmission of infectious agents. Indirect sharing with an intervening stay at home or elsewhere composed the bulk of potential exposures and occurred unbeknownst to hospitals.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Ostrowsky, BE, Trick, WE, Sohn, AH, et al.Control of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus in health care facilities in a region. N Engl J Med 2001;344:14271433.Google Scholar
2.Valentine, SC, Contreras, D, Tan, S, Real, LJ, Chu, S, Xu, HH. Phenotypic and molecular characterization of Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates from nosocomial outbreaks in Los Angeles County, California. J Clin Microbiol 2008;46(8):24992507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Arya, N, Howard, J, Isaacs, S, et al.Time for an ecosystem approach to public health? Lessons from two infectious disease outbreaks in Canada. Glob Public Health 2009;4(1):3149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.McDonald, LC, Simor, AE, Su, IJ, et al.SARS in healthcare facilities, Toronto and Taiwan. Emerg Infect Dis 2004;10(5):777781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Bootsma, MC, Diekmann, O, Bonten, MJ. Controlling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: quantifying the effects of interventions and rapid diagnostic testing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103(14):56205625.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Robotham, JV, Jenkins, DR, Medley, GF. Healthcare-associated infection epidemic behaviour and control in a network of hospitals. In: Program and asbtracts of the 18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Arlington, VA: Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, 2008.Google Scholar
7.Cohen, SH, Gerding, DN, Johnson, S, et al.Clinical practice guidelines for Clostridium difficile infection in adults: 2010 update by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2010;31 (5):431455.Google Scholar
8.Baker, SE, Brecher, SM, Robillard, E, Strymish, J, Lawler, E, Gupta, K. Extranasal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization at admission to an acute care Veterans Affairs hospital. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2010;31(1):4246.Google Scholar
9.Jeyaratnam, D, Whitty, CJ, Phillips, K, et al.Impact of rapid screening tests on acquisition of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus: cluster randomised crossover trial. BMJ 2008;336(7650):927930.Google Scholar
10.Haley, CC, Mittal, D, Laviolette, A, Jannapureddy, S, Parvez, N, Haley, RW. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection or colonization present at hospital admission: multivariable risk factor screening to increase efficiency of surveillance culturing. J Clin Microbiol 2007;45(9):30313038.Google Scholar
11.Jarvis, WR, Schlosser, J, Chinn, RY, Tweeten, S, Jackson, M. National prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in inpatients at US health care facilities, 2006. Am J Infect Control 2007;35(10):631637.Google Scholar
12.Jarvis, WR, Schlosser, J, Jarvis, AA, Chinn, RY. National point prevalence of Clostridium difficile in US health care facility inpatients, 2008. Am J Infect Control 2009;37(4):263270.Google Scholar
13.Dubberke, ER, Wertheimer, Al. Review of current literature on the economic burden of Clostridium difficile infection. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2009;30(1):5766.Google Scholar
14.Muto, CA, Pokrywka, M, Shutt, K, et al.A large outbreak of Clostridium difficile-associated disease with an unexpected proportion of deaths and colectomies at a teaching hospital following increased fluoroquinolone use. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2005;26(3):273280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Weiss, K, Boisvert, A, Chagnon, M, et al.Multipronged intervention strategy to control an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and its impact on the rates of CDI from 2002 to 2007. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2009;30(2):156162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed