Background
Both hospital admissions and patient isolation increase during influenza season. Influenza
testing methodologies that reduce turnaround time (TAT) could reduce time in isolation.
Methods
We assessed the impact of a new influenza test on TAT and isolation days. TAT and
daily mean isolation days were compared at a single hospital over 2 influenza seasons.
An automated real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction assay (rRT-PCR)
with random access replaced a conventional rRT-PCR assay for the second influenza
season. Automation and random access allowed continuous testing, rather than once
daily testing 3-5 d/wk.
Results
Confirmed influenza cases (57 vs 68) and total patient days (66,308 vs. 66,366) were
similar for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 influenza seasons. TAT fell from 35 to 3.6
hours. Daily mean isolation days (32.9 vs 27.7, P < .01) fell, as did days in contact precautions (25.0 vs 19.8, P < .01) and droplet precautions (6.0 vs 3.5, P < .01). Although daily mean droplet precaution days for confirmed influenza rose
slightly (0.86 vs 1.1, P = .16), droplet precaution days for suspected influenza fell 85% (2.7 vs 0.41, P < .001).
Conclusions
Influenza testing technology that reduced TAT from days to hours resulted in a 42%
reduction in droplet precaution days and reduced overall isolation days during influenza
season.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 05, 2016
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
