Blood Culture Use in Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Units and Wards.

Importance: Blood culture (BC) use benchmarks in US hospitals have not been defined.

Objective: To characterize BC use in adult intensive care units (ICUs) and wards in US hospitals.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A retrospective cross-sectional study of BC use in adult medical ICUs, medical-surgical ICUs, medical wards, and medical-surgical wards from acute care hospitals from the 4 US geographic regions was conducted.

Trends in pediatric community-onset antibiotic susceptibilities over a five-year period in a multihospital health system.

The epidemiology of community-onset infections is evolving. We performed a multihospital, retrospective study of pediatric community-onset susceptibilities between 2015 and 2020. Oxacillin and clindamycin susceptibility remained lower at 67% and 75%, respectively.

Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Antibodies against Omicron in Paired Samples after Two or Three Doses of mRNA Vaccine.

SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels wane following two-doses of mRNA vaccination. An mRNA booster dose provides increased protection against hospitalization and death. We demonstrated that a booster dose provides a significant increase in the neutralization of the Beta, Delta and Omicron variants in addition to an increased neutralization of the vaccine strain.

Creating a Safety Officer Program to Enhance Staff Safety During the Care of COVID-19 Patients.

Staff safety is paramount when managing an infectious disease event. However, early data from the COVID-19 pandemic suggested that staff compliance with personal protective equipment and other safety protocols was poor. In response to patient surges, many hospitals created dedicated "biomode" units to provide care for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Durability of Spike Immunoglobin G Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Among Health Care Workers With Prior Infection.

This cohort study examines the durability of spike antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 among a cohort of US health workers.

Association of Vaccine Type and Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Symptoms and Antibody Measurements Following Vaccination Among Health Care Workers.

This cohort study evaluates symptoms following vaccination and antibody measurements in hospital workers who received an mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and had prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Impact of postnatal age on neonatal intensive care unit bloodstream infection reporting.

Due to their short- and long-term impact on patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), bloodstream infections are a closely monitored quality measure. NICU infection rates are risk-adjusted for birth weight, but not postnatal age. Our findings suggest that infection rates are not constant over time in neonates with long NICU lengths of stay and adjusting for postnatal age in addition to birth weight may improve unit comparisons.

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Impact of a Nurse-Driven Urine Culture Diagnostic Stewardship Intervention on Urine Cultures in the Acute Care Setting.

Background: The role of nurses in diagnostic stewardship in hospitals remains largely unknown.

Methods: In this before-after study, researchers assessed the impact of a nurse-driven urine culture (UrCx) stewardship intervention for adults with and without urinary catheters on a general medicine unit of a large hospital. The intervention included education on principles of diagnostic stewardship, identification of a nurse champion to serve as liaison between nursing and the antibiotic stewardship program, and implementation of an algorithm to guide discussions with hospitalists about situations when UrCx may not be needed.

A Diagnostic Stewardship Intervention To Improve Blood Culture Use among Adult Nonneutropenic Inpatients: the DISTRIBUTE Study.

Interventions to optimize blood culture (BCx) practices in adult inpatients are limited. We conducted a before-after study evaluating the impact of a diagnostic stewardship program that aimed to optimize BCx use in a medical intensive care unit (MICU) and five medicine units at a large academic center. The program included implementation of an evidence-based algorithm detailing indications for BCx use and education and feedback to providers about BCx rates and indication inappropriateness.

Predicting probability of perirectal colonization with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and other carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) at hospital unit admission.

Background: Targeted screening for carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs), including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs), remains limited; recent data suggest that existing policies miss many carriers.

Objective: Our objective was to measure the prevalence of CRO and CPO perirectal colonization at hospital unit admission and to use machine learning methods to predict probability of CRO and/or CPO carriage.

Methods: We performed an observational cohort study of all patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit (MICU) or solid organ transplant (SOT) unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2017.

Changing antibiotic resistance patterns for Staphylococcus aureus surgical site infections.

Beta-lactam antibiotics such as cefazolin are first-line agents for preoperative prophylaxis, whereas clindamycin is often administered to patients with a reported penicillin allergy. 1 Recent studies have reported increased resistance to clindamycin in Staphylococcus aureus (SA) isolates from both pediatric and adult populations, and these changes may have implications for surgical site infection (SSI) prophylaxis and empirical management. 2 , 3 Antibiotic resistance trends of SA isolates recovered from SSIs in adults in the United States have not been recently described.

How frequently are hospitalized patients colonized with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) already on contact precautions for other indications?

Using samples collected for VRE surveillance, we evaluated unit admission prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) perirectal colonization and whether CRE carriers (unknown to staff) were on contact precautions for other indications. CRE colonization at unit admission was infrequent (3.9%).

The Role of Negative Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Surveillance Swabs in Predicting the Need for Empiric Vancomycin Therapy in Intensive Care Unit Patients.

OBJECTIVES The role of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal surveillance swabs (nasal swabs) in guiding decisions about prescribing vancomycin is unclear. We aimed to determine the likelihood that patients with negative MRSA nasal swabs develop subsequent MRSA infections; to assess avoidable vancomycin days for patients with negative nasal swabs; and to identify risk factors for having a negative nasal swab and developing a MRSA infection during the intensive care unit (ICU) stay. METHODS This retrospective cohort study was conducted in 6 ICUs at a tertiary-care hospital from December 2013 through June 2015.

National Healthcare Safety Network laboratory-identified Clostridium difficile event reporting: A need for diagnostic stewardship.

We describe the proportion of health care facility-onset Clostridium difficile infection (HO-CDI) National Healthcare Safety Network laboratory-identified events at our facility that were deemed nontrue HO-CDIs. Reasons included testing in a patient without significant diarrhea or with recent laxative use, or delayed testing. Standardized infection ratios using only true HO-CDI in the numerator were improved compared with publically reported standardized infection ratios.