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Educational intervention to improve infection prevention and control practices in four companion animal clinics in Switzerland

Dassler, K; Zurfluh, Katrin; Stephan, Roger; Willi, Barbara (2023). Educational intervention to improve infection prevention and control practices in four companion animal clinics in Switzerland. Journal of Hospital Infection, 139:121-133.

Abstract

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) practices vary among companion animal clinics, and outbreaks with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) have been described.
Aim: To investigate the effect of an IPC intervention (introduction of IPC protocols, IPC lectures, hand hygiene campaign) in four companion animal clinics.
Methods: IPC practices, environmental and hand contamination with antimicrobial-resistant micro-organisms (ARM) and hand hygiene (HH) were assessed at baseline, and 1 and 5 months after the intervention.
Results: Median IPC scores (% maximum score) improved from 57.8% (range 48.0-59.8%) to 82.9% (range 81.4-86.3%) at 1-month follow-up. Median cleaning frequency assessed by fluorescent tagging increased from 16.7% (range 8.9-18.9%) to 30.6% (range 27.8-52.2%) at 1-month follow-up and 32.8% (range 32.2-33.3%) at 5-month follow-up. ARM contamination was low in three clinics at baseline and undetectable after the intervention. One clinic showed extensive contamination with ARM including CPE before and after the intervention (7.5-16.0% ARM-positive samples and 5.0-11.5% CPE-positive samples). Mean HH compliance improved from 20.9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.2-22.8%] to 42.5% (95% CI 40.4-44.7%) at 1-month follow-up and 38.7% (95% CI 35.7-41.7%) at 5-month follow-up. Compliance was lowest in the pre-operative preparation area at baseline (11.8%, 95% CI 9.3-14.8%) and in the intensive care unit after the intervention (28.8%, 95% CI 23.3-35.1%). HH compliance was similar in veterinarians (21.5%, 95% CI 19.0-24.3%) and nurses (20.2%, 95% CI 17.9-22.7%) at baseline, but was higher in veterinarians (46.0%, 95% CI 42.9-49.1%) than nurses (39.0%, 95% CI 36.0-42.1%) at 1-month follow-up.
Conclusion: The IPC intervention improved IPC scores, cleaning frequency and HH compliance in all clinics. Adapted approaches may be needed in outbreak situations.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:05 Vetsuisse Faculty > Veterinärwissenschaftliches Institut > Institute of Food Safety and Hygiene
05 Vetsuisse Faculty > Veterinary Clinic > Department of Small Animals
Dewey Decimal Classification:610 Medicine & health
570 Life sciences; biology
Scopus Subject Areas:Health Sciences > Microbiology (medical)
Health Sciences > Infectious Diseases
Uncontrolled Keywords:Infectious Diseases, Microbiology (medical), General Medicine
Language:English
Date:1 September 2023
Deposited On:27 Feb 2024 08:48
Last Modified:31 Oct 2024 02:37
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0195-6701
OA Status:Hybrid
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2023.06.002
PubMed ID:37302754
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  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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