Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

8 INFECTION CONTROL Study: Hospital COVID-19 screening tools work to prevent spread By Erica Carbajal T he use of daily COVID-19 attestation forms in hos- pitals are effective at identifying healthcare workers who may have COVID-19 and help prevent the virus's spread, findings from researchers at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital suggest. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Boston-based Mass General Brigham implemented COVID Pass, a daily symptom screening tool for hospital employees and visitors that has since recorded more than 15 million attestations. For the study, published Nov. 10 in Infection Control & Epi- demiology, researchers evaluated more than 2 million attes- tations from March 23, 2020, to June 30, 2020, to evaluate how well such screening tools work at identifying symptom- atic people before they enter the hospital. The attestations covered more than 65,000 employees across 52 hospitals and clinic sites within the health system. Of the attestations analyzed, nearly all of them reported no symptoms. A total of 2,062 employees reported at least one symptom, with a sore throat being the most common. Of this group, 905 employees were tested for COVID-19 within 14 days and 114 tested positive. Researchers said the study offers initial evidence supporting the use of such attestation screening tools that have been im- plemented by hospitals across the globe amid the pandemic. "COVID Pass allowed us to identify more than 100 cases of COVID-19 and helped those employees receive the right level of care and testing so that they would not transmit this disease to their patients or their co-workers," senior author Hojjat Salmasian, MD, PhD, said in a Dec. 6 news release sent to Becker's. "It may seem like a small number when you think of millions of attestations, but when you think of the potential harm that can come from just one person spread- ing the virus, there is no such thing as a small success." n Some hospitals push medical-grade masks over cloth coverings as omicron spreads By Kelly Gooch C iting community transmission and record high COVID-19 cases amid the omicron surge, U.S. hospitals and health sys- tems are urging patients and visitors to opt for medical-grade face masks instead of cloth versions. One such organization is Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy, a health system that operates hospitals in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. "To best protect our patients, co-workers and visitors from the highly contagious omicron variant, Mercy is shifting away from cloth masks and asking anyone entering its facilities to wear a medical-grade or higher face mask," the health system said in a statement shared with Becker's. "Masks will be provided to those who need them. The recent change goes along with revised visitor guidelines, effective Jan. 3, to help reduce spread of COVID-19 within our hospitals and clinics." Mercy, which also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach min- istries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, is not alone. Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, New Hamp- shire's only academic health system and the state's largest private employer, updated its mask policy Dec. 8, 2021. The policy states that individuals at any health system facility must wear a medical-grade mask. e health system said patients, caregivers, providers and staff who arrive at a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health facility wearing a cloth mask "will be given a medical mask to wear and must wear a medical mask the entire time that they are in any D-H facility." "D-H is closely monitoring the levels of COVID-19 in our communi- ties and will update this rule as needed," the health system added. Sarah Avery, a spokesperson for Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C., told Becker's the health system's hospitals are also requiring that patients, visitors and staff use hospital-grade masks, which are available at entrances. Additionally, N-95 masks are avail- able for employees who request them. And at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, patients and visitors are being asked to ditch cloth masks and wear surgical/procedural masks. "While a high-quality cloth mask may perform similarly to a medi- cal-grade mask, patients and visitors use a wide range of face cover- ings, making standardization necessary," the health system said in a news release updated Dec. 30. "Single-layer cloth masks, neck gaiters and bandanas are commonly worn, for example, and do not provide optimal protection to help ensure the health and safety of all." Mayo said patients and visitors will be offered a surgical/procedural mask when they arrive at a facility, and patients who have cloth masks or masks with exhalation valves, gaiters or bandanas will be required to wear a medical-grade mask (surgical/procedural, N-95 or KN-95). Based on their preference, patients and visitors may wear their surgi- cal/procedural mask on top of a cloth mask, Mayo said. Marti Leitch, a spokesperson for Columbus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Becker's that throughout the pandemic, the center has required medical-grade disposable masks for anyone in its facilities, and they are available at the facility's public entrances. n

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