A recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides significant insights into the disruptiveness COVID-19 has cast on infection control (IC) processes across United States’ hospitals. This disturbance holds even for regions with a relatively lower SARS-CoV-2 transmission rate. The study is detailed in the American Journal of Infection Control and shines a spotlight on the outbreaks of emerging multi-drug resistant organisms (eMDROs) in 18 different health facilities located in 10 states during the pandemic duration.
The collective data from the surveyed facilities suggest potential links between the pandemic-induced alterations in IC practices, shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), and strategies devised to conserve PPE, to the transmission of eMDRO. This study builds on prior research underscoring the correlation between the pandemic’s effects on U.S. hospital staffing capabilities, available PPE, and the evident increase in multi-drug resistant hospital infections documented in past years.
The study findings draw from an analysis of outbreak report forms submitted to CDC by health departments across 11 states up to March 12, 2021. These forms compiled information regarding facility and cluster characteristics, patient count affiliated with each cluster, patient outcomes, IC measures in place, changes in IC practices, alterations in frontline healthcare personnel (HCP) staffing due to the pandemic, and the local epidemiology of eMDROs and SARS-CoV-2.
COVID-19 pandemic has adversely influenced the ability to prevent eMDRO transmission and initiate effective countermeasures. Although nearly half of the reported clusters transpired in healthcare facilities in communities with lower levels of community SARS-CoV-2 transmission, a significantly larger proportion reported the implementation of contingency and crisis capacity strategies to manage actual or anticipated shortages of PPE.
Extended use and reuse of PPE were not limited to facilities facing SARS-CoV-2 surges, but were a common practice, especially in the units affected by outbreaks. Contributing factors were glove shortage, extended use of isolation gowns, and extended use of gloves without changing between patients. Today, as we continue to battle the pandemic, the prevalence of eMDROs is of increasing concern, reinforcing the need for robust and well-supported IC programs to reverse the upward trend of these resistant organisms.