Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

8 INFECTION CONTROL 6 nurses at New York hospital test positive for COVID-19 after hospital changes procedures By Gabrielle Masson S ix nurses tested positive for COVID-19 aer Syracuse, N.Y.- based St. Joseph's Hospital adjusted infection control proce- dures, nurses at the hospital who wish to remain anonymous told CNYCentral. e nurses said even though they've treated COVID-19 patients since March, nurses didn't start getting sick until aer the updated procedures were implemented at the end of April. e adjusted regulations allowed nurses to wear surgical masks instead of N95 masks. e hospital also removed its negative pressure unit from the COVID-19 unit, the nurses told CNYCentral. Nurses said many employees from the COVID-19 unit are still waiting to get test results back. Hospital leaders said most staff who contracted the virus did so in the community, not at the hospital, according to CNYCentral. St. Joseph's told CNYCentral it will reinstitute the negative pressure airflow in the COVID-19 unit. "Safety is a core value at St. Joseph's Health and we are deeply com- mitted to following CDC guidelines for providing the appropriate level of personal protective equipment for all of our colleagues," Jo- seph Spinale, DO, CMO of St. Joseph's Health, said in a statement to Becker's. "Multiple resources regarding appropriate PPE use are available to our colleagues, including ongoing individual educa- tion. We continue to work daily with suppliers worldwide and with government agencies to secure additional PPE as we navigate a global supply challenge. To be good stewards of our resources, we are employing well-established conservation strategies consistent with the CDC guidelines." n Infectious disease specialists improve 5-year outcomes of staph patients By Anuja Vaidya H aving a consultation with an infectious disease specialist was associated with improved outcomes for patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia after leaving the hospital, a study published in JAMA Network Open found. Researchers examined data for 31,002 staph patients discharged from 116 acute care units at Veterans Health Administration facilities nation- wide. They collected initial hospitalization data from January 2003 to December 2014, and follow-up data through Sept. 30, 2018. Researchers identified18,794 deaths and 4,772 recurrences of staph during the five years of follow-up. About 49.5 percent of the patients consulted with an infectious disease physician during their initial hospital stay. The patients who received the consultation had a reduced risk of death and lower risk of staph recurrence for five years after hospital discharge compared to patients who did not receive the consultation. The findings suggest that "contributions of [an] infectious disease specialist may have a substantial influence on long-term outcomes," researchers said. n N95 masks can be safely reused 2 or 3 times, NIH says By Anuja Vaidya A National Institutes of Health study found that N95 masks can be decontaminated and reused safely only two or three times, according to MedPage Today. The study, which had not been peer-reviewed as of April, analyzed four readily available and often used N95 mask decontamination methods, including ultraviolet light, a 70 percent ethanol solution, heat treatment and vaporized hydrogen peroxide. Researchers found that ultraviolet light and vaporized hy- drogen peroxide both killed the virus on N95 masks without affecting the functional integrity of the masks for two rounds of decontamination, compared to control masks that were not treated. Filtration remained "acceptable" after the mask was reused a third time when those two methods of decon- tamination were used. The decontamination method using vaporized hydrogen peroxide was faster than the ultraviolet light method, elimi- nating viral growth in about 10 minutes. The study also examined two other methods: using a 70 percent ethanol solution sprayed on the mask until saturated and heat treatment in an oven set to 158 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. The ethanol decontaminated the masks quickly but did not preserve the functional integrity; the heat treatment was slow and took an hour to kill the virus but did preserve functional integrity for two rounds of decontamination, according to MedPage Today. n

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