How Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals Can Play an Important Role in Controlling Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae in a Region: A Simulation Modeling Study

Infection Control Measure Performance in Long-Term Care Hospitals and Their Relationship to Joint Commission Accreditation

BACKGROUND

This study evaluated the relationship between Joint Commission accreditation and health care-associated infections (HAIs) in long-term care hospitals (LTCHs).

METHODS

This observational study used Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) LTCH data for the period 2017 to June 2021. The standardized infection ratio (SIR) of three measures used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network were used as dependent variables in a random coefficient Poisson regression model (adjusting for CMS region, owner type, and bed size quartile): catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs), and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) for the periods 2017 to 2019 and July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. Data from January 1 to June 30, 2020, were excluded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESULTS

The data set included 244 (73.3%) Joint Commission-accredited and 89 (26.7%) non-Joint Commission-accredited LTCHs. Compared to non-Joint Commission-accredited LTCHs, accredited LTCHs had significantly better (lower) SIRs for CLABSI and CAUTI measures, although no differences were observed for CDI SIRs. There were no significant differences in year trends for any of the HAI measures. For each year of the study period, a greater proportion of Joint Commission-accredited LTCHs performed significantly better than the national benchmark for all three measures (p = 0.04 for CAUTI, p = 0.02 for CDI, p = 0.01 for CLABSI).

CONCLUSION

Although this study was not designed to establish causality, positive associations were observed between Joint Commission accreditation and CLABSI and CAUTI measures, and Joint Commission-accredited LTCHs attained more consistent high performance over the four-year study period for all three measures. Influencing factors may include the focus of Joint Commission standards on infection control and prevention (ICP), including the hierarchical approach to selecting ICP-related standards as inputs into LTCH policy.

A multi-center validation of the electronic health record admission source and discharge location fields against the clinical notes for identifying inpatients with long-term care facility exposure

Identifying long-term care facility (LTCF)-exposed inpatients is important for infection control research and practice, but ascertaining LTCF exposure is challenging. Across a large validation study, electronic health record data fields identified 76% of LTCF-exposed patients compared to manual chart review.

OBJECTIVE

Residence or recent stay in a long-term care facility (LTCF) is an important risk factor for antibiotic-resistant bacterial colonization. However, absent dedicated intake questionnaires or resource-intensive chart review, ascertaining LTCF exposure in inpatients is challenging. We aimed to validate the electronic health record (EHR) admission and discharge location fields against the clinical notes for identifying LTCF-exposed inpatients.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study of 1020 randomly sampled adult admissions between 2016 and 2021 across 12 University of Maryland Medical System hospitals. Using study-developed guidelines, we categorized the following data for LTCF exposure: each admission’s history & physical (H&P) note, each admission’s EHR-extracted “Admission Source,” and (3) the EHR-extracted admission and discharge locations for previous admissions (≤90 days). We estimated sensitivities, with 95% CIs, of H&P notes and of EHR admission/discharge location fields for detecting “current” and “any recent” (≤90 days, including current) LTCF exposure.

RESULTS

For detecting current LTCF exposure, the sensitivity of the index admission’s EHR-extracted “Admission Source” was 46% (95% CI: 35%–58%) and of the H&P note was 92% (83%–97%). For detecting any recent LTCF exposure, the sensitivity of “Admission Source” across the index and previous admissions was 32% (24%–41%), “Discharge Location” across previous admission(s) was 57% (47%–66%), and of the H&P note was 68% (59%–76%). The combined sensitivity of admission source and discharge location for detecting any recent LTCF exposure was 76% (67%–83%).

CONCLUSIONS

The EHR-obtained admission source and discharge location fields identified 76% of LTCF-exposed patients compared to chart review but disproportionately missed currently exposed patients.

Concurrent transmission of multiple carbapenemases in a long-term acute-care hospital

OBJECTIVE

We investigated concurrent outbreaks of Pseudomonas aeruginosa carrying blaVIM (VIM-CRPA) and Enterobacterales carrying blaKPC (KPC-CRE) at a long-term acute-care hospital (LTACH A).

METHODS

We defined an incident case as the first detection of blaKPC or blaVIM from a patient's clinical cultures or colonization screening test. We reviewed medical records and performed infection control assessments, colonization screening, environmental sampling, and molecular characterization of carbapenemase-producing organisms from clinical and environmental sources by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and whole-genome sequencing.

RESULTS

From July 2017 to December 2018, 76 incident cases were identified from 69 case patients: 51 had blaKPC, 11 had blaVIM, and 7 had blaVIM and blaKPC. Also, blaKPC were identified from 7 Enterobacterales, and all blaVIM were P. aeruginosa. We observed gaps in hand hygiene, and we recovered KPC-CRE and VIM-CRPA from drains and toilets. We identified 4 KPC alleles and 2 VIM alleles; 2 KPC alleles were located on plasmids that were identified across multiple Enterobacterales and in both clinical and environmental isolates.

CONCLUSIONS

Our response to a single patient colonized with VIM-CRPA and KPC-CRE identified concurrent CPO outbreaks at LTACH A. Epidemiologic and genomic investigations indicated that the observed diversity was due to a combination of multiple introductions of VIM-CRPA and KPC-CRE and to the transfer of carbapenemase genes across different bacteria species and strains. Improved infection control, including interventions that minimized potential spread from wastewater premise plumbing, stopped transmission.

Worsening Spread of Candida auris in the United States, 2019 to 2021

BACKGROUND

Candida auris is an emerging fungal threat that has been spreading in the United States since it was first reported in 2016.

OBJECTIVE

To describe recent changes in the U.S. epidemiology of C auris occurring from 2019 to 2021.

DESIGN

Description of national surveillance data.

SETTING

United States.

PATIENTS

Persons with any specimen that was positive for C auris.

MEASUREMENTS

Case counts reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by health departments, volume of colonization screening, and antifungal susceptibility results were aggregated and compared over time and by geographic region.

RESULTS

A total of 3270 clinical cases and 7413 screening cases of C auris were reported in the United States through 31 December 2021. The percentage increase in clinical cases grew each year, from a 44% increase in 2019 to a 95% increase in 2021. Colonization screening volume and screening cases increased in 2021 by more than 80% and more than 200%, respectively. From 2019 to 2021, 17 states identified their first C auris case. The number of C auris cases that were resistant to echinocandins in 2021 was about 3 times that in each of the previous 2 years.

LIMITATION

Identification of screening cases depends on screening that is done on the basis of need and available resources. Screening is not conducted uniformly across the United States, so the true burden of C auris cases may be underestimated.

CONCLUSION

C auris cases and transmission have risen in recent years, with a dramatic increase in 2021. The rise in echinocandin-resistant cases and evidence of transmission is particularly concerning because echinocandins are first-line therapy for invasive Candida infections, including C auris. These findings highlight the need for improved detection and infection control practices to prevent spread of C auris.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

None.

A matrix management of prevention and control for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in an urban compact medical union

PURPOSE

To understand the epidemiological characteristics of nosocomial infection of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in an urban medical union includes 10 medical hospitals with different number of beds in China.

METHODS

Epidemiological data on age, department, and infection of CRE cases detected from January 2014 to December 2021 were collected via a real-time hospital-infection monitoring system or manually for subsequent characterization. A multi-departmental and multi-disciplinary matrix (MMM) management of CRE was established and implemented within a medical union.

RESULTS

A total of 1327 cases of CRE infection were detected during the 8 years, of which 352 were due to nosocomial infection, with an infection morbidity of 0.046% and a resistance rate of 10.79%. The morbidity of CRE infection showed a trend of year-to-year fluctuation. The morbidity of CRE infection was significantly higher in winter and spring than that in summer and autumn, significantly higher in men than in women (χ² ​= ​55.891, p ​< ​0.001), and 3 times higher in elderly patients ≥65 years old than in patients <65 years old (χ² ​= ​117.517, p ​< ​0.001). The morbidity of CRE infection after intervention with MMM management decreased significantly from 0.071% to 0.042% (χ² ​= ​15.628, p ​< ​0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

CRE prevention and control practice should be adapted to seasonal variations, gender and age differences. The effective prevention and control of CRE nosocomial infections can be achieved by implementing MMM management within a medical association.