No Images? Click here The primary aim of VICNISS is to minimise the number of infections that are associated with healthcare in Victoria. IN THIS EDITION
Key DatesClick on the links below for either the due dates for data submission to VICNISS and/or for our next round of educational webinars in May. Quarter 3 2018/19 Due: 3rd May 2019 Influenza 2019 Due: 16th August 2019 Hand Hygiene Audit 2 Due: 30th June 2019 Education - Webinars May 1st, 7th, 9th, 16th, 21st, 23rd, 28th and 30th Currently there is a vacancy on the committee for an ICP to represent rural and regional hospitals. If you are interested please contact VICNISS Click on the link to see a current list of members. The VICNISS Advisory Committee (VAC)Reminder and VACANCY for a rural and regional representative The VAC is a consultative committee consisting of stakeholder representation meeting quarterly to provide advice and input to VICNISS on HAI surveillance activities, including development, maintenance, improvements and communication of information to consumers and health care providers.
The committee represent you, whether you are an Infection Control Consultant, Physician, Nurse, or an administrator in a health care facility. If you have any issues that you wish to have raised at a committee meeting, please contact one of the members. Noleen will attend SHEA's 2019 Conference in Boston in April this year. This conference is attended by a broad range of healthcare professionals interested in infection prevention, Antimicrobial stewardship, surveillance, research methods, patient safety, environmental issues and quality improvement. Congratulations Here at VICNISS we are delighted to share with you exciting news about our very own Associate Professor Noleen Bennett. Noleen has been appointed to the 2019 International Ambassadors Program for SHEA. This is an outstanding achievement, Noleen being one of only 18 selected from a large panel of highly qualified candidates from all around the world. The aim of the International Ambassadors Program is to have delegates engage with SHEA, to learn and to share knowledge on infection control challenges and to work together on healthcare-associated infection on both a local and global scale. SHEA's mission is to promote the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance Aged Care Home Healthcare Worker Influenza Vaccination On 22 April 2018, the Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, and the Minister for Aged Care, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP announced that Australian Government-subsidised approved providers of residential aged care would be required to have in place an annual flu vaccination program that offers a free flu vaccine to staff and volunteers.The Department of Health and Human Services supplies free influenza vaccine for those staff employed in the public sector residential aged care services (PSRACS). As of 2018, each PSRACS is required to report its annual HCW vaccination data to the VICNISS Coordinating Centre via the Aged Care Home. Click on the link 2019 Aged Care National Antimicrobial Prescribing SurveyThe official data collection period for collecting and submitting 2019 acNAPS data will be between June 1st and August 31st. The NAPS team together with VICNISS are currently working towards simplifying the data collection forms. We will let you know when the revised forms have been finalised and uploaded onto the NAPS website. We will also let you know the dates and times for when the online training sessions have been scheduled. Reminder: Surveillance PlanA reminder that your annual surveillance plan submission due date is fast approaching. The requirements in the performance monitor are still being finalised by DHHS however we will endeavour to inform you as soon as possible in order that you can complete your surveillance plans. Hand Hygiene Auditor Validation Project To facilitate auditor validation it is important that auditors have exactly the same name in HHCApp as in the LMS. Either name can be edited by the auditor once logged in to either HHCApp or the Learning Management System. Please ensure auditors that were recently ‘flagged’ as not having completed the Auditor online learning package in the last twelve months have now done so as invalidated auditors will be removed from their organisation in HHCApp and be unable to enter data. Gold Standard Auditor Training Workshops 2019
If you wish to attend this workshop, please register on the HHA website under Audits/Upcoming Workshops. If the dates or venue are not suitable for you please register on the Workshop Waitlist and you will be notified when the next workshop is confirmed. Participation in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Infection Prevention & Control Global Survey – 5th May 2019
Do not use the link provided on the WHO Survey page as this is not specific for Australia. Infection Control Literature Review April 2019 Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH) ACIPC 2018 delegates had the opportunity to hear investigators present interim findings from the REACH study which has now been published in Lancet Infectious Diseases (Mitchell B et al. Lancet Inf Dis 2019; epub 8/3/19). This is the first randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of a systematic bundle of interventions to improve environmental hygiene, targeting routine daily cleaning and terminal cleaning and disinfection in reducing health-care associated infections (HCAI) in hospitals. The study was a stepped-wedge randomised controlled design, performed in 11 Australian hospitals between May 2016 and 2017. The intervention involved a review of the environmental hygiene approach in each hospital, and a structured, tailored set of recommendations to improve product choice, technique, audit, training, and communication of performance. The primary outcomes were incidences of health-care-associated S.aureus bacteraemia (SAB), C. difficile infection (CDI), and VRE infection. The secondary outcome was the thoroughness of cleaning of frequent touch points, assessed by a fluorescent marking gel. A unique aspect of the intervention was to raise the profile and importance of cleaning, support a culture shift in the perception and profile of environmental hygiene staff, and to encourage daily contact between environmental hygiene staff and ward leaders or managers. This is separately published (Mitchell B et al. Am J Inf Control 2018; 46(9):980-985). Overall, there was a 37% reduction in VRE infections (from 0.35 to 0.22 per 10,000 occupied bed days (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.41–0.97, p=0.0340), but no significant changes in the incidence of S. aureus bacteraemia (0.97 to 0.80/10,000 occupied bed days; RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.60–1.12, p=0.2180) or C. difficle infection (2.34 to 2.52/10,000 occupied bed days; RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.88–1.30, p=0.4655). The intervention increased the percentage of frequent touch points cleaned in bathrooms from 55% to 76% (odds ratio 2·07, 1·83–2·34, p<0·0001) and bedrooms from 64% to 86% (1·87, 1·68–2·09, p<0·0001). There were no noticeable changes in hand hygiene compliance or antimicrobial use during the study period. This study underlines both the importance of environmental hygiene in preventing HCAI and also highlights our knowledge gaps around how what an effective environmental hygiene intervention looks like. The intervention was a mixture of training, education, organisational policy changes as required to increase the status of environmental hygiene and environmental hygiene staff. Any or all of these changes could have resulted in the reduction of VRE. It is unclear why there were no significant reductions in SAB and CDI: this could be further explored in the future by evaluating acquisition of colonisation rather than infection and looking also at the impact of appropriate use of a sporicidal disinfectant for C.difficile. Investigating Clostridium difficile Transmission Patterns between Infected and Colonised Patients Using Whole Genome Sequencing Clostridium difficile is a leading cause of health-care associated infections, rivalling MRSA, accounting for $3.2 billion in excess costs annually globally. A recently updated ASID/ACIPC position statement on infection control for patients with CDI in Australian healthcare facilities was published (IDH 2019:24:32-43). Infection control recommendations for hospitals focus on preventing transmission from symptomatic CDI patients. Kong et al (CID 2019; 68 (1):204-209) undertook to investigate the relative roles of carrier and cases as a source of transmission to patients with CDI. Investigators analysed patient movement data and performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) on 554 C. difficile isolates originally obtained during a NAP1 strain outbreak. Samples were collected from 353 colonised patients and 201 CDI cases for genetic testing. Of CDI cases, 105 (52%) were genetically linked with 81 (77%) also having a plausible ward link. Of those with a likely source, 34/81 (42%) of linked cases were associated exclusively with a previous CDI case and 19/81 (23%) associated exclusively with an asymptomatic carrier. This is the largest study to date investigating the roles of carriers and cases as sources of transmission. The use of WGS is currently considered the most discriminating typing/fingerprinting method and being increasingly adopted over other techniques such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) or PCR ribotyping. This study confirms that colonised patients may be a source of onward transmission to incident CDI cases, but that spread from infected donors with diarrhoea is likely more frequent. Short Course in Infection Prevention and Control Hume Region Infection Control Resource and Consulting Service (HRICRCS) are running a 2 day infection control short course. This is designed as an introduction to Infection prevention and control however many participants come annually as a refresher or as a networking opportunity. Click on the link for a flyer with more information including dates, location, contact details and costs involved. (This not a VICNISS run event) See details below on how best to contact the VICNISS team for any assistance you may require or click on the link to visit our website |