To explore the association of putative disease markers and potential risk factors with the nosocomial sepsis syndrome.

Prospective case-control study matched for gender, age, and length of preinfection hospital stay.

1,200-bed tertiary-care center in Spain.

Cases were selected using the sepsis syndrome criteria of the American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Conference and were divided into three groups: sepsis with bacteremia (109 cases), sepsis with positive culture other than blood (122 cases), and sepsis with negative culture (115 cases without documented infection but with sepsis syndrome, clinically suspected infection, and empirical antibiotic treatment). Controls were randomly selected from the daily list of inpatients. Data were collected prospectively. Crude and multiple-risk-factor-adjusted odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were computed using conditional logistic regression analysis.

Presence of coma in the 48 hours before sepsis, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and decreased serum albumin levels at admission were common epidemiological markers identified for the three groups of cases. Having a central venous catheter was the main healthcare-related risk factor for bacteremia. ICU stay and nasogastric tube were the main risk factors for sepsis with positive culture other than blood. Coma within 48 hours before sepsis and the need of intensive care were the only two markers identified for culture-negative sepsis.

Culture-negative sepsis does not behave like culture-positive sepsis, and this may imply that implementation of preventive measures to decrease the risk of bacteremia may not decrease the risk of sepsis syndrome.

Develop and implement an effective program for hazard analysis and control of waterborne pathogens at a multicampus hospital with clinics.

A longitudinal study. Several-year study including analysis of results from monitoring and tests of 26 building water systems.

Outpatient and inpatient healthcare facilities network.

The hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) process was used to develop a water management program (WMP) for the hospital campuses. The HACCP method systematically addressed 3 questions: (1) What are the potential waterborne hazards in the building water systems of these facilities? (2) How are the hazards being controlled? (3) How do we know that the hazards have been controlled? Microbiological and chemical tests of building water samples were used to validate the performance of the WMP; disease surveillance data further validated effective hazard control.

Hazard analysis showed that waterborne pathogens were generally in good control and that the water quality was good in all facilities. The hospital network has had several legionellosis cases that were identified as presumptive hospital acquired, but none was confirmed or substantiated by water testing in follow-up investigations. Building water system studies unrelated to these cases showed that pressure tanks and electronic automatic faucets required additional hazard control.

Application of the HACCP process for long-term building water systems management was practical and effective. The need for critical control point management of temperature, flow, and oxidant (chlorine) residual concentration was emphasized. The process resulted in discovery of water system components requiring additional hazard control.

To document successful substantial increases in healthcare worker influenza vaccination rates and to identify reasons for success and failure.

(1) Four-year longitudinal characterization of facility vaccination rates, (2) Web-based facility-level questionnaire for influenza coordinators to identify success factors in year 3, and (3) semistructured telephone interviews of influenza coordinators at facilities with substantial increases or declines in year 4.

National single-payer hospital (healthcare) system with 153 hospitals in 5 levels of complexity.

Facility leadership staff.

(1) Vaccination data collected from management sources (doses from pharmacies, denominator data from payrolls); (2) a Web-based survey aligned with a previously administered instrument (Wisconsin Health Department), piloted in-house, modified to reflect national strategies and improvements; and (3) semistructured telephone interviews with influenza coordinators at facilities that improved or worsened by more than 20% between the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 influenza seasons.

Vaccination acceptance rates improved from 45% of healthcare workers in 2005–2006 to 66.5% in 2008–2009. Facilities with lower complexity had higher vaccination rates. No individual factors were associated with improved performance.

Sustained management attention can lead to improvements in healthcare worker influenza vaccination rates. Wavering of attention, though, may lead to rapid loss of effectiveness. Declination statements in this system did not contribute to vaccine acceptance.

Cases of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In this report, we describe 3 clusters of COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers (HCWs), not associated with patient exposure, and the interventions undertaken to halt ongoing exposure and transmission at our cancer center.

A cluster of cases was defined as 2 or more cases of severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–positive COVID-19 among HCWs who work in the same unit area at the same time. Cases were identified by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing. Contact tracing, facility observations, and infection prevention assessments were performed to investigate the 3 clusters between March 1 and April 30, 2020, with subsequent implementation of containment strategies.

The initial cluster involved HCWs from an ancillary services unit, with contacts traced back to a gathering in a break room in which 1 employee was symptomatic, although not yet diagnosed with COVID-19, with subsequent transmission to 7 employees. The second cluster involved 4 employees and was community related. The third cluster involved only 2 employees with possible transmission while working in the same office at the same time. A step-up approach was implemented to control the spread of infection among employees, including universal masking, enhanced cleaning, increase awareness, and surveillance testing. No nosocomial transmission to patients transpired.

To our knowledge, this is the first report of a hospital-based cluster of COVID-19 infections among HCWs in a cancer hospital describing our steps to mitigate further transmission.

To investigate the effects of friendly competition on hand hygiene compliance as part of a multimodal intervention program.

Prospective observational study in which the primary outcome was hand hygiene compliance. Differences were analyzed using the Pearson χ2 test. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval were calculated using multilevel logistic regression.

Observations were performed in 9 public hospitals and 1 rehabilitation center in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

From 2014 to 2016, at 5 time points (at 6-month intervals) in 120 hospital wards, 20,286 hand hygiene opportunities were observed among physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers (HCWs).

The multimodal, friendly competition intervention consisted of mandatory interventions: monitoring and feedback of hand hygiene compliance and optional interventions (ie, e-learning, kick-off workshop, observer training, and team training). Hand hygiene opportunities, as formulated by the World Health Organization (WHO), were unobtrusively observed at 5 time points by trained observers. Compliance data were presented to the healthcare organizations as a ranking.

The overall mean hand hygiene compliance at time point 1 was 42.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 41.4–44.4), which increased to 51.4% (95% CI, 49.8–53.0) at time point 5 (P<.001). Nurses showed a significant improvement between time points 1 and 5 (P<.001), whereas the compliance of physicians and other HCWs remained unchanged. In the multilevel logistic regressions, time points, type of ward, and type of HCW showed a significant association with compliance.

Between the start and the end of the multimodal intervention program in a friendly competition setting, overall hand hygiene compliance increased significantly.

Overuse of antibiotics in the emergency department (ED) for uncomplicated acute respiratory tract infections (uARTIs) is a public health issue that needs to be addressed. We aimed to identify factors associated with antibiotic use for uARTIs in adults presenting at the ED.

We searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library for articles published from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2017 using a predetermined search strategy. Titles and abstracts of English articles on antibiotic prescription and inappropriate antibiotic use for adult ARTI at EDs were assessed, followed by full article review, by 2 authors.

Emergency departments.

Adults aged 18 years and older.

Of the 2,591 articles retrieved, 12 articles met the inclusion criteria and 11 studies were conducted in the United States. Patients with normal C-reactive protein levels and positive influenza tests were less likely to receive antibiotic treatment. Nonclinical factors associated with antibiotic use were longer waiting time and perceived patient desire for antibiotics. Patients attended by internal medicine physicians comanaged by house staff or who visited an ED which provided education to healthcare providers on antibiotics use were less likely to receive antibiotics.

English-language articles that fulfilled the selection criteria outside the United States were limited. Factors associated with antibiotics use are multifaceted. Education of healthcare providers presents an opportunity to improve antibiotic use.

The prevention of tuberculosis (TB) transmission in healthcare settings is a major issue, particularly because of the interaction between human immunodeficiency virus and TB and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB.

Healthcare facilities involved in TB management in 4 African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Togo).

A questionnaire was developed by representatives of the 4 countries to evaluate the organizational measures implemented in facilities involved in TB management. On-site visits were performed between July 2010 and July 2011.

A total of 115 facilities, including 10 university hospitals and 92 basic management units, were visited. None had a TB infection control plan, and only 5.2% provided education for staff about nosocomial TB. Overall, 48.3% of the facilities performed triage of suspected TB cases on hospital arrival or admission, 89.6% provided education for TB cases on cough etiquette, 20.0% segregated smear-positive TB cases, and 15.7% segregated previously treated cases. A total of 15.5% of the facilities registered TB among staff, for a global prevalence rate of 348 cases per 100,000 staff members.

This survey identified simple and mostly costless administrative measures to be urgently implemented at the local level to prevent nosocomial TB, such as staff education, triage on admission, and segregation of previously treated patients.

To investigate the timing and routes of contamination of the rooms of patients newly admitted to the hospital.

Observational cohort study and simulations of pathogen transfer.

A Veterans’ Affairs hospital.

Patients newly admitted to the hospital with no known carriage of healthcare-associated pathogens.

Interactions between the participants and personnel or portable equipment were observed, and cultures of high-touch surfaces, floors, bedding, and patients’ socks and skin were collected for up to 4 days. Cultures were processed for Clostridioides difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Simulations were conducted with bacteriophage MS2 to assess plausibility of transfer from contaminated floors to high-touch surfaces and to assess the effectiveness of wearing slippers in reducing transfer.

Environmental cultures became positive for at least 1 pathogen in 10 (59%) of the 17 rooms, with cultures positive for MRSA, C. difficile, and VRE in the rooms of 10 (59%), 2 (12%), and 2 (12%) participants, respectively. For all 14 instances of pathogen detection, the initial site of recovery was the floor followed in a subset of patients by detection on sock bottoms, bedding, and high-touch surfaces. In simulations, wearing slippers over hospital socks dramatically reduced transfer of bacteriophage MS2 from the floor to hands and to high-touch surfaces.

Floors may be an underappreciated source of pathogen dissemination in healthcare facilities. Simple interventions such as having patients wear slippers could potentially reduce the risk for transfer of pathogens from floors to hands and high-touch surfaces.