FCHD’s Antibiotic Awareness Week: A Celebration of Health & Education
The Fairfax County Health Department’s Strengthening Antimicrobial Stewardship in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SASS) team put together an amazing educational program for U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week (USAAW) in November 2023! Their team is using CDC funding to focus on improving antimicrobial stewardship in skilled nursing facilities. During USAAW, they rolled out a toolkit for skilled nursing facilities to use for their own facility education.
We spoke to Samantha Christensen, Fairfax County Health Department (FCHD) HAI Epidemiologist to learn more about their Antibiotic Awareness Week toolkit. The FCHD started the week off with a big celebration, beginning with a kickoff breakfast, an antimicrobial stewardship podcast playlist with QR codes for easy access, and a microbe “joke of the day”. They also put up a tri-fold education poster with purple themed balloons and decorations, wore purple for Antimicrobial Awareness Week, had antimicrobial stewardship themed trivia with Starbucks gift cards for prizes, and held a watch party (with snacks, of course) for everyone to view educational infection prevention and control videos!
And because we know you want to hear the jokes…. “What’s the most popular antibiotic in Italy? Amoxsicilian!” Here’s another good one… “What’s the opposite of an antibiotic? An uncle-biotic!”
Congratulations to Samantha and the entire FCHD team for developing this fun and unique education program to ensure smart antibiotic use in skilled nursing facilities!
Celebrating One Year Without a Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection!
On Thursday October 12, 2023, the Infection Prevention and Nursing leadership teams at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital rounded on the nursing units to celebrate achieving one year without a catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI)! Cupcakes (yellow frosted, of course) were distributed to all and many thanks shared with the teams. The entire hospital has been instrumental in reducing CAUTIs at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital.
It starts in the Emergency Department with urinary catheters only being placed when absolutely necessary, then responsibility moves to the inpatient units where daily conversations are held to assess the need for the catheter. Infection Prevention reviews urinalysis and urine culture orders on patients with catheters, ensuring good culture stewardship. Physicians are engaged with the infection prevention and nursing teams in the conversations about catheter and urine culture necessity. This excellent teamwork has led to a reduction in CAUTIs and the achievement of being one-year CAUTI free!
APIC Virginia Conference
On October 5th and 6th, infection preventionists and public health partners from around the state came together in Richmond, VA for two days of education, networking, and learning about new products from industry partners.
The Virginia chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC Virginia) had their highest attendance ever, with over 100 attendees for the conference on Friday, and approximately 60 pre-conference attendees on Thursday!
Preconference attendees learned the ins and outs of basic microbiology, how specimen collection can impact culture results, how to read susceptibility results and antibiograms, and how they can contribute to antimicrobial stewardship programs by focusing on enhancing their partnership with the laboratory.
Conference attendees brushed up on water management, dialysis, construction, nasal decolonization as a means to prevent infection, and heard about interesting Group A Strep and scabies outbreaks. A social event on Thursday provided great food and drink, and opportunities to network and socialize.
APIC Virginia looks forward to seeing you at next year’s educational conference!
What’s In Your Water?
Hayley Andrews, an infection preventionist in the southwest region of Virginia, used her curious mind and a desire to educate others to help uncover environmental contamination that caused an illness in one of her patients.
Hayley’s facility admitted a patient with sepsis, and blood cultures grew Aeromonas hydrophila. Because Hayley had never heard of this organism, she researched it and learned that it is typically a waterborne organism. Hayley took this information to the nursing unit where the patient was located and the patient’s son heard her educating the nurses about Aeromonas. He joined in and mentioned that his mom had a well and he was concerned that it may be contaminated.
The health department visited the home and tested the water. Sure enough, it was contaminated with Aeromonas and other organisms, and failed potability testing. The health department was able to get the patient an alternate, safe water source upon her discharge to prevent further infection until her well water could be remediated.
Thank you, Hayley! Your diligence prevented this patient from getting sick again, and perhaps prevented other neighbors from a similar outcome!