• DHHS COVID-19 Infection Prevention & Control Guidelines 
• Aged Care Resident Screening Module
• Pneumococcal Vaccination

• Occupational Exposure

• Literature Review by Dr Lyn-li Lim

• Aged Care National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (AC NAPS) 2020

• National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI)
• COVID-19 patient monitoring system
• VICNISS Surveillance Plans

Version 3 of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Prevention and Control Guideline has been uploaded to the DHHS site Learn more>

Updates include the following:

• A link to ‘Disinfectants for use against COVID-19 in the ARTG for legal supply in Australia’
• Statement regarding ‘fogging’ as a disinfectant process for COVID-19
• More about physical distancing to align with current advice from DHHS
• Current information on the use of face coverings/masks to align with the latest DHHS guidance
• Information about the extended use of PPE.

To support your participation in the COVID-19 Aged Care Resident Screening module, we are suggesting participating aged care facilities temporarily cease collection and submission of significant organisms data; i.e. MRSA, VRE and CDI. The period of this change will be from commencement of the Daily Summary data entry to the 31st December 2020.

NOTE:  You MUST add the COVID-19 Aged Care Daily Summary to your surveillance plan BEFORE you attempt to delete the MRSA, VRE and CDI modules.

There have been changes to the National Immunisaton Program pertaining to the recommendations for Pneumococcal Vaccination. Further information will be updated on the VICNISS website in the near future, however, you can access information on these changes via the Australian Immunisation Guidelines website.

These changes came into effect on July 1 2020, however will be reflected in the 2021 Residents' Pneumococcal Vaccination module in May 2021

A number of hospitals and aged care homes that have nominated to participate in the Occupational Exposure Module have NOT submitted the HCW FTE denominator data. This webform MUST be submitted or you will not be able to 'confirm' the data on your surveillance plan. If you are unable to access the appropriate FTE data you can use the N/A tick box.

Dr Lyn-li Lim presents us with two rather pertinent literature reviews:

• Managing teamwork in the face of COVID-19 pandemic
• Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care

The first focuses on teamwork and is a timely reminder of the challenges that many healthcare teams are currently facing.  Her second review looks at The WHO policy brief that highlights the challenges and required actions to mitigate the impact of  COVID-19 on long-term care facilities (LTCF).  This is a major issue in Victoria currently in our aged care facilities.

Click on the link to read these reviews Learn more >

This year’s official timeframe for collecting and submitting AC NAPS data has been extended until December 14th. Educational resources that outline how to collect and submit AC NAPS data include a User Guide, E-learning module and case studies. These resources can be accessed by logging on the AC NAPS website via naps.org.au, and clicking onto the resources page.  Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require further information – phone (03) 9342 9415 or email support@naps.org.au  

Submission of hand hygiene compliance data for NHHI Audit 3 2020 is not mandatory, please see Advisory AS20/01 from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare Learn more>  Data may still be submitted as usual via HHCApp and there is no requirement to submit the usual minimum required moments. ​ 

All  data entered into HHCApp for NHHI Audit 3 must be submitted by the audit end date of 31st October 2020. If you are still performing hand hygiene compliance audits but do not want to submit to the national audit period please enter this data into a local audit period, see here  for instructions on how to do this.

*If your organisation did not submit for NHHI Audit 2 then NHHI Audit 3 will not be automatically available for selection.  The Organisation Administrator can add this audit manually by logging into HHCApp, going to Organisations/selecting their organisation/clicking on audits in the right hand side vertical menu/clicking on Add Audit/selecting National and then NHHI Audit 3 2020 in the Audit period drop down list/clicking on Save.

Written instructions can be found here and then select "How do I add a National and/or local audit?"

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the information on the NHHI, please phone 9342 9356 or email jennifer.bradford@mh.org.au

Gold Standard Auditor training workshops have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An online version of the workshop is currently being developed and further information will be provided when details are finalised.

Please note:

• Patient location must be updated every day until discharge
• When a patient is transferred the discharging facility records relevant details i.e.name of facility, contact person, etc.  From this information an email is sent to all registered COVID form users at the receiving facility. A user in the receiving facility should click on the link in the email to automatically generate a web form that is partially populated with relevant details e.g. name, DOB etc.

Please note: 

Mandatory HAI surveillance to DHHS has been suspended between April 1 and September 30.  In order for VICNISS to ascertain the ability of hospitals/health services to resume all surveillance activities, can you please:

• Provide brief feedback on your capacity for routine surveillance after this time; i.e. from October 1 2020. Your feedback will be communicated to DHHS. This may include 1, 2 or any combination of your current chosen surveillance modules.
• Please UPDATE your surveillance plan for Q1 in the 2020-2021 Surveillance Plans to reflect ALL surveillance that you intend to carry out. VICNISS will assume that any surveillance modules that remain on your plans by the end of Q1 will have data entered, checked and confirmed by the submission due date, 7th November 2020.

Do not hesitate to contact VICNISS if you require help with this.