May/June 2021 · Volume 12, Issue 85

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Antimicrobial Resistance (AR)   Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI)
Virginia Department of Health (VDH)   United States (US)
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

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• Antibiograms
• TB Case Counts & Rates
• COVID-19 & TB Resource
• NHSN Updates
• Relevant Research: Hand Hygiene, Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship
• MMWR Podcast
• SPICE LTC Webinar
• Save the Dates

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News in Virginia

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Virginia State and Regional Cumulative Antibiograms. Thanks to your previous participation, VDH has published state and regional cumulative antibiograms for 2017 and 2018 isolates. The VDH HAI/AR Team did not ask for 2019 antibiograms last year, but are hoping to catch up this year.

If you are able to participate, please use this REDCap form to submit your facility antibiogram for isolates tested in 2019. Later this year we will be asking for 2020 data, but would first like to get started on 2019.

The layout has changed slightly this year to make it more user friendly. We received feedback from the pilot indicating that it was taking longer to load some of the branching logic. If you have ANY issues entering your data, there is an option at the end of the survey to upload your antibiogram in lieu of entering into the REDCap cells and columns. Please utilize that function if you encounter any problems and the HAI/AR Team will add your data.

The deadline to complete the form is May 21, 2021.

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• The deadline to enter 2020Q4 data into NHSN for the CMS Quality Reporting Programs for participating acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs), inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and cancer hospitals is May 17, 2021. To ensure your data have been correctly entered into NHSN, please verify that: 1) your monthly reporting plans are complete, 2) you have entered appropriate summary and event data or checked the appropriate no events boxes, and 3) you have cleared all alerts from your NHSN facility homepage. Hospitals that have conferred rights to VDH will be receiving a quality assurance report in the second week of May, so please be sure to check your email and acknowledge receipt and review. Please remember to update the HAI/AR Program with any IP contact changes. For additional guidance on ensuring your data are accurately sent to CMS for Quality Reporting purposes, please visit the NHSN website and navigate to the appropriate section(s) for your facility type: http://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/cms/index.html. 
• In addition to acute care hospitals, LTACHs, and IRFs, the following units within these facilities are now required to report healthcare personnel (HCP) influenza vaccination data to NHSN beginning with the 2020-2021 influenza season:
  • Inpatient rehabilitation facility units located within long-term acute care facilities
  • Inpatient rehabilitation facility units located within inpatient psychiatric facilities
  • A video presentation on the new healthcare personnel influenza vaccination data submission requirement is available and posted on the NHSN website: https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/training/annualtraining/index.html. Facilities are required to report these data to NHSN by May 17, 2021.
    
• CDC released their NHSN Data Quality Guidance Manual in February 2021. This manual outlines the recommended data quality verification steps users can perform in the NHSN application to ensure accurate data entry. This manual applies to all HAI types.  
• CDC released a new weekly COVID-19 vaccination data reporting module for dialysis patients in March 2021. This module allows dialysis facilities to track and report COVID-19 vaccination patient data using the NHSN Dialysis Component. The data will help to identify dialysis patient populations with lower vaccination rates, improve vaccination tracking, and monitor vaccination trends over time. Training materials are available on the NHSN website: https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/dialysis/pt-covid-vac/index.html. 

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Hand Hygiene Compliance Rates During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A recent Research Letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that hand hygiene compliance rates peaked in March 2020 and returned to baseline levels by August 2020.  High compliance was likely driven by fear and increased awareness, but was not sustained long-term.  

Antibiotic Prescribing Practices. A 2015 cross-sectional prevalence survey at 10 of CDC’s Emerging Infections Program sites estimates that more than half of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals for selected prescribing events were not consistent with recommended prescribing practices. This analysis is one of the largest to assess appropriateness of prescribing and sets a baseline for future analyses to measure the impact of antibiotic stewardship programs on hospital prescribing.  

U.S. Healthcare Costs of Six Resistant Pathogens. Retrospective cohort studies of patients admitted in the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system between 2007-2015 found that antimicrobial-resistant infections led to substantial healthcare costs.

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Stewardship Intervention in Emergency Departments. An intervention was piloted in two emergency departments (EDs) that aimed to improve antimicrobial stewardship. It successfully reduced the amount of antibiotic prescriptions for acute viral respiratory infections but did not significantly lower overall antibiotic use. These findings indicate that auditing and feedback may be a strategy for improved stewardship in EDs. The MITIGATE Toolkit is another proven strategy for improving antimicrobial stewardship in EDs. 

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MMWR Podcast. MMWR Weekly COVID-19 Briefing is a weekly podcast to update readers on the latest scientific information from CDC’s COVID-19 response. In each episode, MMWR’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Charlotte Kent provides an overview of the latest scientific information published in MMWR. New episodes are posted every Monday.

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National Nurses Week: May 6-12, 2021. This week we celebrate and recognize the contributions that nurses make to our communities.  To learn more about the history visit the American Nurses Association website or visit the International Council of Nurses to learn more about the international theme for 2021, “A Voice to Lead.”

National Skilled Nursing Care Week (NSCW): May 9-15, 2021. The theme for NSNCW is “Together Through the Seasons'', to honor the collaborative commitment of skilled nursing care facilities and their staff in providing care.  To learn more about this week and how to participate check out the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) website. 

National Healthcare Risk Management (HRM) Week June 21-25, 2021. Held annually during the third week of June, we recognize and show appreciation for the healthcare risk management professionals in our organizations and communities.  Visit the American Society for Health Care Risk Management to learn more about HRM week.