Assessment of Healthcare Worker Protocol Deviations and Self-Contamination During Personal Protective Equipment Donning and Doffing. (13th June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kwon, Jennie H.; Burnham, Carey-Ann D.; Reske, Kimberly A.; Liang, Stephen Y.; Hink, Tiffany; Wallace, Meghan A.; Shupe, Angela; Seiler, Sondra; Cass, Candice; Fraser, Victoria J.; Dubberke, Erik R.
• Is Part Of: Infection control and hospital epidemiology. Volume 38:Number 9(2017)
• Page Start: 1077
• Page End: 1083
• Publication Date: 2017-06-13
• Subjects: Nosocomial infections -- Epidemiology -- Periodicals; Health facilities -- Sanitation -- Periodicals; Hospital buildings -- Sanitation -- Periodicals; Cross Infection -- Periodicals; Epidemiology -- Periodicals; Hospitals -- Periodicals; Infection Control -- Periodicals; 614.44
• DOI: 10.1017/ice.2017.121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0899-823X

Abstract

Abstract : OBJECTIVE: To evaluate healthcare worker (HCW) risk of self-contamination when donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE) using fluorescence and MS2 bacteriophage. DESIGN: Prospective pilot study. SETTING: Tertiary-care hospital. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 36 HCWs were included in this study: 18 donned/doffed contact precaution (CP) PPE and 18 donned/doffed Ebola virus disease (EVD) PPE. INTERVENTIONS: HCWs donned PPE according to standard protocols. Fluorescent liquid and MS2 bacteriophage were applied to HCWs. HCWs then doffed their PPE. After doffing, HCWs were scanned for fluorescence and swabbed for MS2. MS2 detection was performed using reverse transcriptase PCR. The donning and doffing processes were videotaped, and protocol deviations were recorded. RESULTS: Overall, 27% of EVD PPE HCWs and 50% of CP PPE HCWs made ≥1 protocol deviation while donning, and 100% of EVD PPE HCWs and 67% of CP PPE HCWs made ≥1 protocol deviation while doffing ( P =.02). The median number of doffing protocol deviations among EVD PPE HCWs was 4, versus 1 among CP PPE HCWs. Also, 15 EVD PPE protocol deviations were committed by doffing assistants and/or trained observers. Fluorescence was detected on 8 EVD PPE HCWs (44%) and 5 CP PPE HCWs (28%), most commonly on hands. MS2 was recovered from 2 EVD PPE HCWs (11%) and 3 CP PPE HCWs (17%). CONCLUSIONS: Protocol deviations were common during both EVD and CP PPE doffing, and some deviations during EVD PPE doffing were committed by the HCW doffing assistant and/or the trained observer. Self-contamination was common. PPE donning/doffing are complex and deserve additional study. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1077–1083