ABSTRACT
Introduction: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HUG hospital is mandated to care for patients suspected of having or affected by COVID-19. The majority of the wards (W) at HUG became COVID W;CONTACT and DOPLETS measures replaced standard precautions (SP). Additional measures were implemented to prevent nosocomial (NOSO) cases: control of visitors and staff at the entrance of the hospital, surgical mask wearing, screening of patients and staff, epidemiological surveillance. Vaccination started in January 2021. On 26.05.2021, 17.3% of the general population and 57.5% of the hospital staff received at least one dose. Objectives: To reduce the occurrence of NOSO cases in non-COVID W Methods: The program covers the period from 01.01 to 30.06.2021 and concerns non-COVID units. It is based on several axes of intervention, including: 1.Training: medical-nursing managers of the non-COVID W were invited to participate in a training session on the topic “SP”. Trainers were 3 IPC professionals and 1 adult education specialist. 2. Monitoring of compliance with hand hygiene, mask wearing and provision of alcohol based handrub at the W entrance. Observers are trained, validated and interrater reliability tested. Feedback was applied: oral immediate feedback;monthly delayed feedback using a poster for each W with SP' compliance, explaining the results with the hierarchy, and set the goal for next month. A written report was sent to the hospital management. Patients' data are from the prospective national surveillance on COVID-19 identified hospitalized COVID-19 adult cases with a laboratory confirmed infection. NOSO cases were defined as those detected > 5 days after hospital admission. Results: From 24.08.2020 to 23.05.2021, 1863 community acquired COVID cases and 497 NOSO cases were collected. The percentage of NOSO cases decreased after the introduction of the program (before 426/1589 (26.8%) after 71/771 (9.2%), p < 0.001). Conclusion: Following the intervention, the incidence of NOSO cases has markedly decreased.