Effect of serious infectious threat response initiative (SITRI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System.

Background: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) increased worldwide as health care facilities struggled through the pandemic. We describe our methods in the implementation of a programmatic initiative called serious infectious threat response initiative (SITRI) that was conceptualized to support our staff, to facilitate day-to-day clinical operations related to COVID-19 and to shield our infection prevention and control program (IPC) from excessive COVID-19 work burden to the extent possible to retain routine prevention focused efforts. Post implementation, we sought to understand and quantify the workload and utility of SITRI, IPC burnout and HAI incidence during the implementation period.