Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

10 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY Mandatory Flu Shot Policies May Be Based on Flawed Research, Study Suggests By Heather Punke W hile the CDC urges everyone to get a flu shot, some hospitals take it a step further and mandate employees to get a flu shot or face possible termination. ese mandatory flu shot poli- cies are rooted in the belief the shot protects both workers and patients from the virus. However, a study published in PLOS One says the policies may be built on faulty research. "e impression that unvaccinated [health- care workers] place their patients at great influenza peril is exaggerated," according to the study. Researchers looked into four cluster ran- domized controlled trials conducted in long-term care facilities that showed re- ductions in patient flu risk when more healthcare workers were vaccinated against the flu. ey found the trials overestimated the effect healthcare worker vaccination would have on patient flu deaths. For instance, one of the tri- als concluded one influenza death would be averted for every eight staff members vacci- nated. But if that were true, vaccinating the nation's 5.5 million healthcare workers would avert 687,500 flu deaths annually — when in reality flu causes only 3,000 to 49,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, STAT reported. "I think the bottom line of our paper is to say there is no valid scientific evidence, even now, underpinning enforced healthcare worker immunizations," Gaston De Serres, MD, PhD, the lead study author, told STAT. e leader of one of the trials examined in this study issued a response in PLOS One, stating in part, "While we claimed that the findings may be generalizable to other set- tings we did not intend to imply that the ex- tent of the benefit would be similar in other settings. Indeed we think the effect is likely to be substantially greater in long-term care facilities for frail elderly residents than in the acute care setting or in long-term care facili- ties catering for less frail patients." n Patient Safety Efforts Saved Almost 70k Lives in 2016 By Brian Zimmerman S afety efforts implemented at 3,526 hospitals and open data pledges made by 70 health- care technology companies saved the lives of 69,519 people in 2016, according to the Patient Safety Move- ment Foundation. The patient safety organization an- nounced the achievement at its 5th Annual Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit held Feb. 3 and 4 in Dana Point, Calif. The number ex- ceeds the foundation's 2016 goal of saving 50,000 lives. Former Vice President Joe Biden deliv- ered the keynote address at the sum- mit, speaking on the importance of eliminating the occurrence of prevent- able deaths in the healthcare setting. "We cannot spend billions on sub- lime new therapies to save lives from cancer, only to lose them tragically as a consequence of predictable mis- takes," said Mr. Biden. n Environmental Cleaning Approaches for Reducing MRSA Transmission: 5 Study Insights By Anuja Vaidya A study published in BMC In- fectious Diseases in January examines the efficacy of different approaches for cleaning environmental surfaces to prevent contact transmission of methi- cillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other hospital-acquired infections. Researchers constructed a mathe- matical model to study MRSA con- centration dynamics on: • High-touch and low-touch surfaces • The hands and noses of two pa- tients in two hospitals rooms • A healthcare worker in a hypotheti- cal hospital environment They examined two cleaning inter- ventions — whole room cleaning and wipe cleaning of touched surfaces. Here are five insights from the study: 1. Whole room cleaning just before first patient care activities of the day was more effective than whole room cleaning at other times. 2. Whole room cleaning reduced the number of MRSA transmitted to the susceptible patient by 54 percent. 3. Frequent wipe cleaning of touched surfaces was more effective than whole room cleaning. 4. Additionally, wipe cleaning high- touch surfaces was more effective than wipe cleaning low-touch surfac- es, when the frequency of cleaning was the same. 5. Thus, daily whole room cleaning reduces the number of MRSA trans- mitted via the contact route, and it should be supplemented with "fre- quent targeted cleaning of high- touch surfaces," the study authors conclude. n

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