COVID-19 emergency: from a general hospital to a covid hospital in one week, an Italian experience.

Aim of this letter is to describe the reconversion process of our general hospital, in just one week, into a COVID-19 Hospital. The working strategy allowed to quickly find the spaces, identify the working group, reshape the hospital organizational structure, redesign the flows and patient/health workers pathways. The hospital provided for a progressive activation of COVID-19 beds following the philosophy of the intensity of care.

Trend of Legionella colonization in hospital water supply.

Background: In many nosocomial Legionella outbreaks water distribution systems are the most frequent source of infection.

Objectives: Considering the hospital waterline old age, an investigation on colonization by Legionella spp was carried out in order to evaluate the pipeline system weaknesses and to implement environmental preventive measures.

Methods: From 2004 to 2010, overall 97 samples from the water line were collected.

Evaluation of fungal contamination in operating rooms using a dusting cloth pad: comparison among different sampling methods.

To evaluate microbial contamination in hospitals environments, several methods are available, each one having its limitations. Therefore, the choice of system to use is open. This study compares the ability of a dusting cloth pad (DC pad) with 2 other methods (Rodac contact plate and air sampling) to detect contamination because of filamentous fungi in operating rooms, performing 110 sampling campaigns in hospitals of 3 Italian cities.

Field validation of a dusting cloth for mycological surveillance of surfaces.

Efficient monitoring of surfaces for spores of filamentous fungi is essential for detecting minor contamination even when air samples test negative for fungi. This study evaluates and compares a pad prepared using a dusting cloth with Rodac contact plates and humidified swabs for detecting mycological contamination, and concludes that the new method is superior and cheaper.

Decrease of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus prevalence after introduction of a surgical antibiotic prophylaxis protocol in an Italian hospital.

The use of antimicrobials is an important factor contributing to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The goal of our study was to evaluate the impact of the introduction of an antibiotic surgical prophylaxis protocol on the prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in a tertiary care hospital. The protocol of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis was designed by a multidisciplinary team and was implemented in December 2001.