Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

12 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES Immunocompromised people 3 times more likely to get breakthrough COVID-19, Pfizer study finds By Erica Carbajal F ully vaccinated people with weaker immune systems contract COVID-19 three times more oen and have more severe illness than those with strong immune systems, a study published Nov. 30 in the Journal of Medical Economics found. e retrospective analysis, led by Pfizer researchers, involved the health records of nearly 1.3 million people aged 16 and older who had received both doses of Pfizer-Bi- oNTech's COVID-19 vaccine from Dec. 10, 2020, to July 8, 2021. Of those, about 18 per- cent had immunocompromising conditions, such as cancer or kidney disease. Findings showed the proportion of people with breakthrough infections was three times higher among immunocompromised individ- uals at 0.18 percent compared to non-immu- nocompromised people at 0.06 percent. While breakthrough cases were rare overall, with just 0.08 percent of fully vaccinated people contracting COVID-19, immuno- compromised people accounted for more than 38 percent of the infections, despite representing just 18 percent of the study group. About 60 percent of hospitalizations occurred among immunocompromised peo- ple, and the two people who died from their illness both had weakened immune systems. "COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections are rare but more common and severe in im- munocompromised individuals," researchers said. "e findings from this large study support the FDA authorization and CDC recommendations to offer a third vaccine dose to increase protection among immuno- compromised individuals." Amid growing concern over the emer- gence of the variant B.1.1.529, known as omicron, the CDC expanded its official COVID-19 vaccine booster recommen- dations Nov. 29, urging all Americans aged 18 and older to get their booster six months after completing their initial immunization series with the Pfizer-BioN- Tech or Moderna vaccines, or two months after the Johnson & Johnson shot. n Hospitalizations for eating disorders doubled in 2020, study finds By Erica Carbajal U .S. hospitalizations for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia doubled in May 2020 — about two months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency, a study published Nov. 16 in JAMA Network Open found. Researchers examined healthcare trends related to eating disorders from 2018 through the end of 2020, looking at data from more than 3.2 million people. Through April 2020, the number of patients who received inpa- tient care stayed about the same at 0.3 per 100,000 people per month. In May 2020, the rate doubled to 0.6 per 100,000 per month. Researchers said the increase was seen across anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders. Between June and December of 2020, the median length of stay for patients receiving care for eating disorders also rose, to 12 days. During the same period in 2018 and 2019, the medi- an lengths of stay were nine days and eight days, respectively. The number of patients seen in outpatient settings for eating disorders also increased, from about 25 people per 100,000 per month to 29 per 100,000. Researchers cited several possible explanations for why the pandemic may have prompted the increases, such as obe- sity being a frequently cited risk factor for COVID-19 and large-quantity food purchases in order to avoid the grocery store for fear of catching COVID-19. n Mon Health to adopt plain language emergency alerts By Mackenzie Bean M organtown, W.Va.-based Mon Health System will be one of the first healthcare organizations in the state to transition from emergency codes to plain language alerts Dec. 1. Instead of alerting response teams to various events or emergencies via terminology like "code orange," the health system will use common, everyday lan- guage to describe the situation, such as "hazardous spill." A group of representatives from each of Mon Health's hospitals developed a standardized ter- minology to use systemwide, according to Maxine Cantis, the health system's risk manager. By using plain language alerts, Mon Health said it hopes to reduce errors, increase transparency of safety events and protocols, and limit confusion for staff members who may work in more than one facili- ty with different codes. "Moving to plain language will increase situational awareness of events and reduce delays, which in turn will provide a better experience for our patients, visitors and employees," Ms. Cantis said in a Nov. 29 news release. The change comes as more hospitals across the U.S. opt to adopt plain language alerts to simplify commu- nication practices. n

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