SPARC’s recent focus has been to support Maryland acute care hospitals as they manage staff safety and prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic entered endemic, SPARC expanded to other infection control and prevention topics such as central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).
Reports & Publications
How to Support Hospitals During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Maryland (Health Affairs Forefront): This blog post describes findings from an assessment of SPARC activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment found that SPARC was an important source of information for Maryland acute care hospitals managing dynamic COVID-19 guidance and policies.
Tools
This tool is aimed to improve the protocol for disinfection of shared equipment used for isolated patients.
The is a tool to assist in the audit of proper PPE usage.
These are CDC resources for ATP-based environmental cleaning.
This link provides a list of resources from Hygiena, the company that makes ATP testing devices used around the globe.
(May 2, 2019) In this presentation, Dr. Anthony Harris discussed the pros and cons of using contact precautions to prevent transmission of pathogens in acute care hospitals. Infection Preventionists and hospital epidemiologists particularly benefitted from this presentation.
(July 10, 2019) In this presentation, Kimberly Claeys, PharmD, BCPS, presented a summary of currently available rapid diagnostic tests for bloodstream infections, potential clinical impact, and literature to optimize use. This presentation benefits physicians, pharmacists, and nurses.
Part 2 of this webinar focused on how to improve environmental cleaning through effective performance assessment with constructive feedback in a non-blame, empowering culture using a fluorescent gel (FG) monitoring program. FG is a harmless fluid invisible to the naked eye but visible with UV light and can be used for environmental cleaning monitoring in the acute care setting. An FG monitoring program should be objective, valid, resource-efficient, and performance-improvement and training-focused. It was discussed how best to implement a program, or enhance an existing program, at your hospital. We included recommendations on optimal number and best selection methods of high touch surfaces (HTS) and rooms; who is best positioned to lead an FG monitoring program; and the benefits of monitoring both daily and discharge cleaning.
(April 17, 2019) In this presentation, Dr. Surbhi Leekha, MBBS, MPH discussed reflex urine culturing as a simple, lab-based approach to urine culture diagnostic stewardship. It focused on the steps of setting up a system for reflex urine culturing in a hospital setting, common questions that arise during the implementation process, as well as some pitfalls of reflex urine culturing that can paradoxically increase urine culturing.
