Virginia Department of Health, Office of Communications

October VIPTA Vitamin IPC Bulletin with Corrected Links

Virginia Department of Health, Office of Communications sent this bulletin at 10/02/2024 09:31 AM EDT

October 1, 2024

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VIPTA Bulletin

Vitamin IPC

Event Calendar
Featured Training Resources
Regulation & Guidance Updates
Cheers for Peers
Resource Library
Become a VIPTA Partner
Subscribe to the VIPTA Bulletin
We Want To Hear From You

Coordinated by the Virginia Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Group, VIPTA is a partnership among Virginia's healthcare, congregate care, and public health groups that aims to build a statewide infection prevention & control (IPC) education collaborative.

Celebrating a year of growth and community with VIPTA

We kicked off VIPTA’s first anniversary celebrations at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Virginia Annual Educational Conference! It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with and encourage infection prevention professionals to subscribe to our bulletin, join one of our subcommittees, or become a VIPTA partner. To add a little fun to the festivities, we contributed a VIPTA library-themed basket to the silent auction. This basket showcased the incredible work of VIPTA and highlighted our FREE infection prevention and control (IPC) resources.

As we reflect on our first year, we’re thrilled to share some exciting milestones! In just one year:

We increased VIPTA bulletin subscribership by 222%
We welcomed over 13,000 views to the VIPTA website
The VIPTA resource library has become the most visited feature on our site, serving as your go-to place for educational resources that enhance your IPC knowledge
The events calendar ranks close in popularity, keeping users updated with a detailed schedule of IPC-related events

To celebrate our achievements over the past year, we are highlighting some inspiring user testimonials that showcase VIPTA’s impact:

Thank you for being a part of our journey! Here’s to more growth, collaboration, and shared success!

Angela Spleen, VDH Infection Prevention & Control Program Manager, showcasing VIPTA materials at the APIC Virginia Annual Educational Conference

October Event Calendar

Check out the VIPTA Event Calendar for more details and to register for events.

VIPTA Event Calendar

VIPTA Events in October

Featured Training Resource

💡International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW): October 13–19, 2024

This year’s theme, "Moving the Needle on Infection Prevention," is all about advancing infection prevention efforts and making infection prevention fun and engaging for your team.

APIC provides activities like the Build a Bug Contest or daily infection prevention Wordles. These interactive events are designed to spark creativity, teamwork, and excitement while reinforcing the best practices that keep everyone safe.

Ways to Use This Resource:

Build a Bug Contest: Challenge your team to create their own superbug and showcase how they would stop it!

Daily Wordle: Add some brain-teasing fun to your day with infection prevention-themed Wordles.

Infection Prevention Challenges: Bring out the competitive spirit with trivia, scavenger hunts, and more.

Target Audience: Essential to Foundational IPC education level

Image source: https://infectionpreventionandyou.org/logos-and-web-buttons/

Regulation & Guidance Updates

✅ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Core Elements of Hospital Diagnostic Excellence Programs (9/11/2024)
- Describes the key framework and actions that can be implemented to improve diagnoses for hospitalized patients. The guidance includes diagnostic stewardship considerations for urine culture and C. difficile tests which align with infection prevention recommendations.
Health Update: Prevention Strategies for Mpox, including Vaccinating People at Risk via Sexual Exposure, for U.S. Travelers Visiting Countries with Clade I Mpox Outbreaks (9/23/2024)
- Provides recommendations for travelers who are going to a country with ongoing human-to-human clade I mpox virus transmission.
- Provides clinicians and public health practitioners with recommendations to implement during travel health visits to mitigate the risk to travelers visiting countries with ongoing human-to-human clade I mpox virus transmission.
Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) August Public Meeting Recap (9/3/2024)
- During the August 2024 meeting, the committee provided brief updates from three of HICPAC’s workgroups: Isolation Precautions, Dental Unit Waterlines, and Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel. A recap of the meeting and what was specifically covered can be reviewed on the CDC’s Blog.
Use of COVID-19 Vaccines in the United States (9/6/2024)
- Recommendations for the use of 2024–2025 Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in people ages 12 years and older
- Updated guidance in the Interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines section and in Appendix B on completion of an initial vaccination series if vaccine doses from different manufacturers are administered in certain circumstance.

✅ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Healthcare Safety Network’s (NHSN) Antibiotic Use and Resistance (AUR) Reporting Modules

Eligible acute care and critical access hospitals have two module options for reporting AUR data to the NHSN AUR Module to meet the CMS requirements for calendar year 2024. Find more information about these modules in the NHSN Newsletter and AUR Reporting FAQs on the NHSN website.

✅ Virginia Department of Health Updated Mpox Guidance: Assessing and Managing Exposed Healthcare Personnel (9/2024)

Updated to align with the current CDC mpox guidance to include high and intermediate risk exposure monitoring and travel considerations. Revised language in exposure scenarios for the application of risk assessment for both healthcare personnel and patients experiencing exposure to a person with mpox. Updated risk categories based on current CDC guidance.

Cheers for Peers

✨ VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital

This month we are highlighting the great infection prevention work at VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital. They haven’t had a reportable catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), central line-associated bloodstream infection, ventilator-associated event, MRSA bacteremia laboratory-identified event, or surgical site infection following a colon procedure in 2023 or 2024 so far! They are a small facility (only 37 beds), so even one healthcare-associated infection causes their standardized infection ratio to be high.

According to Director of Infection Prevention, Donna Tignor, and Director of Quality, Kate Bradshaw, they are most proud of their work on CAUTI reduction. VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital has the standard CAUTI prevention practices in place, such as a CAUTI prevention bundle and discussing necessity every day in interdisciplinary rounds. However, the initiative with the biggest impact was the facility’s effort to empower nurses to follow the nurse-driven protocol for urinary catheter removal. Despite having a nurse-driven protocol in place, nurses were still calling physicians for permission to remove the catheter. Infection prevention and nursing leaders rounded with staff to share their support for the nurse-driven protocol and empower nursing staff to follow the protocol. These leaders made a commitment to back up the nursing teams if the decision to remove a catheter under the protocol was called into question. Infection prevention at Tappahannock also performs in-person onboarding with new physicians so they can review the nurse-driven catheter removal protocol with them. This ensures that physicians are aware of the facility’s protocols and that this is a part of their culture. Great work VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital!

VIPTA Resource Library

Search the VIPTA library of curated infection prevention and control (IPC) education and training resources. The IPC Education & Training Resource Library includes state and national resources related to healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and/or IPC.

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Promote your organization's events on the VIPTA calendar
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