The COVID-19-related death rate varies between countries and is affected by various risk factors. This multicenter registry study was designed to evaluate the mortality rate and the related risk factors in Turkey. We retrospectively evaluated 1500 adults with COVID-19 from 26 centers who were hospitalized between March 11 and July 31, 2020. In the study group, 1041 and 459 cases were diagnosed as definite and highly probable cases, respectively. There were 993 PCR-positive cases (66.2%). Among all cases, 1144 (76.3%) were diagnosed with non-severe pneumonia, whereas 212 (14.1%) had severe pneumonia. Death occurred in 67 patients, corresponding to a mortality rate of 4.5% (95% CI:3.5-5.6). The univariate analysis demonstrated that various factors, including male sex, age ≥65 years and the presence of dyspnea or confusion, malignity, chronic obstructive lung disease, interstitial lung disease, immunosuppressive conditions, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, and sepsis, were positively associated with mortality. Favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were not associated with survival. Following multivariate analysis, male sex, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, malignancy, sepsis and interstitial lung diseases were found to be independent risk factors for mortality. Among the biomarkers, procalcitonin levels on the 3 rd -5 th days of admission showed the strongest associations with mortality (OR: 6.18; 1.6-23.93). This study demonstrated that the mortality rate in hospitalized patients in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic was a serious threat and that those patients with male sex, severe pneumonia, multiorgan dysfunction, malignancy, sepsis and interstitial lung diseases were at increased risk of mortality; therefore, such patients should be closely monitored.

Objective: Improving the compliance to hand hygiene in healthcare providers is important to reduce healthcare-associated infections. This study aimed to compare the compliance rate before and after the improvement of compliance to hand hygiene. Methods: In this study 270 of the 348 medical staff working in a 61-bed private hospital was observed. The informed observation was performed by the infection control committee in the entire hospital using “Five Moments for Hand Hygiene” for a period of one year. After the first six months, an improvement study was conducted together with the hospital’s quality department using the plan-do-check-act cycle. The study was conducted in a private hospital in Istanbul/Turkey; Kadıkoy Florence Nightingale Hospital in 2014. Results: In the first six months of the year, 153 actions were observed at 316 proper situations. The compliance rate was 35%, 54% and 64% for the physicians, nurses and, other healthcare staff, respectively. The overall compliance rate was 48%. One hundred eighty-three actions were observed for 306 situations after the improvement and education studies. The compliance rate was 29%, 72% and 86%. The overall mean compliance rate was 60%. Conclusion: The promotion of hand hygiene requires the cooperation of the hospital administrators, infection control committee, and quality departments for better hand hygiene practices among the healthcare providers. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.3.6 How to cite this:Demirel A. Improvement of hand hygiene compliance in a private hospital using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) method. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.3.6 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Objective:Febrile neutropenic episodes (FNEs) are among the major causes of mortality in patients with hematological malignancies. Secondary infections develop either during the empirical antibiotic therapy or 1 week after cessation of therapy for a FNE. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with secondary infections in febrile neutropenic patients.Materials and Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 750 FNEs in 473 patients between January 2000 and December 2006.Results:Secondary infections were diagnosed in 152 (20%) of 750 FNEs. The median time to develop secondary infection was 10 days (range: 2-34 days). The duration of neutropenia over 10 days significantly increased the risk of secondary infections (p<0.001). The proportion of patients with microbiologically documented infections was found to be higher in primary infections (271/750, 36%) compared to secondary infections (43/152, 28%) (p=0.038). Age; sex; underlying disease; antibacterial, antifungal, or antiviral prophylaxis; blood transfusion or bone marrow transplantation; central venous catheter; and severity of neutropenia did not differ significantly between primary and secondary infections (p>0.05). While fever of unknown origin (p=0.005) and catheter-related bacteremia (p<0.001) were less frequently observed in secondary infections, the frequency of microbiologically (p=0.003) and clinically (p<0.001) documented infections, fungal pneumonias (p<0.001), infections related to gram-positive bacteria (p=0.04) and fungi (p<0.001), and 30-day mortality rate (p<0.001) were significantly higher in cases of secondary infections (p<0.001).Conclusion:Secondary infections should be regarded as life-threatening complications of febrile neutropenia. Secondary infections represent a more severe and mortal complication and cannot be regarded just as another FNE.

Sepsis is a severe clinical syndrome owing to its high mortality. Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score has been proposed for the prediction of fatal outcomes in sepsis syndrome in emergency departments. Due to the low predictive performance of the qSOFA score, we propose a modification to the score by adding age. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study among regional referral centers from various regions of the country. Participants recruited data of patients admitted to emergency departments and obtained a diagnosis of sepsis syndrome. Crude in-hospital mortality was the primary endpoint. A generalized mixed-effects model with random intercepts produced estimates for adverse outcomes. Model-based recursive partitioning demonstrated the effects and thresholds of significant covariates. Scores were internally validated. The H measure compared performances of scores. A total of 580 patients from 22 centers were included for further analysis. Stages of sepsis, age, time to antibiotics, and administration of carbapenem for empirical treatment were entered the final model. Among these, severe sepsis (OR, 4.40; CIs, 2.35–8.21), septic shock (OR, 8.78; CIs, 4.37–17.66), age (OR, 1.03; CIs, 1.02–1.05) and time to antibiotics (OR, 1.05; CIs, 1.01–1.10) were significantly associated with fatal outcomes. A decision tree demonstrated the thresholds for age. We modified the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mod-qSOFA) score by adding age (> 50 years old = one point) and compared this to the conventional score. H-measures for qSOFA and mod-qSOFA were found to be 0.11 and 0.14, respectively, whereas AUCs of both scores were 0.64. We propose the use of the modified qSOFA score for early risk assessment among sepsis patients for improved triage and management of this fatal syndrome.

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ÖzAmaç: Bu çalışmada perioperatif antimikrobiyal profilaksi (PAP) uygulamalarında güncel rehberlere uyum oranlarını ve bu oranları etkileyen faktörleri belirlemeyi amaçladık. Gereç ve Yöntemler: 30 Mayıs -30 Haziran 2013 tarihleri arasında 15 farklı merkezde uygulanan ankete yedi farklı branştan 410 cerrah katıldı. Çoktan seçmeli ve açık uçlu 40 soru içeren anketler yüz yüze görüşme yöntemiyle uygulandı. Bulgular: Katılımcıların ortalama yaşı 38,01±9,1, %83,4'ü erkek idi. Ankete katılan cerrahların %46,2'si "kurumlarında cerrahi profilaksi rehberi varlığı hakkında bilgisi olmadığını," %34'ü ise "rehberin bulunduğunu ve profilaksi uygulamalarının rehbere uygun olduğunu" belirtti. Ankete katılan cerrahların %56,1'inin kurum içinde cerrahi profilaksi konusunda herhangi bir eğitim toplantısına katılmadığı, son üç yıl içinde cerrahi profilaksi eğitimi alanlarda rehbere uyumun istatistiksel olarak daha yüksek olduğu belirlendi (p <0,001). Kardiyovasküler cerrahlarda uyum diğer branşlardan cerrahlara kıyasla anlamlı olarak daha yüksek saptandı (p=0,012). Uygulanan profilaksinin süresi katılımcıların %56'sında 24 saatten daha uzun idi. Dren kullanılan girişim-lerde cerrahların %63,7'sinin cerrahi profilaksiyi dren çekildikten sonra sonlandırdığı belirlendi. Ürologların ikinci kuşak ve üçüncü kuşak sefalosporinleri anlamlı olarak (p<0,001; p=0,002) daha sık kullandığı belirlendi. Cerrahların %87,6'sı cerrahi profilakside kullanılan antibiyotikte rotasyonel değişiklik yapmadığını ifade etti. Merkezlerin %33'ünde 24 saat enfeksiyon konsültasyonu ve mikrobiyoloji laboratuvarı olanağı bulunmadığı belirtildi. Katılımcıların %50'si "Cerrahi profilaksi rehberlerine uyumu engelleyen en önemli nedenler nelerdir?" sorusunu yanıtsız bıraktı. En önemli nedenler; "çalışılan kurumdaki hastane enfeksiyonları ve etken mikroorganizmalar hakkında düzenli bilgi verilmemesi" (%30), "profilaktik ilacın sağlık personeli tarafından planlanan zaman ve dozda uygulanmaması" (%27) ve kurum içi PAP rehberinin hekim tarafından yetersiz bulunması (%17) şeklinde belirlendi. Tartışma ve Sonuç: Kanıta dayalı PAP uygulamalarının yerleşebilmesi için bilimsel rehberler ve kurum içi kılavuzların varlığı kadar cerrahi birimlerin bu kılavuzların hazırlık aşamasına etkin katılımı ve ayrıca düzenli eğitim ve geri bildirim toplantıları ile branşlar arası aktif iletişimin sürdü-rülmesi de son derece önemlidir. Anahtar Sözcükler: Perioperatif; antimikrobiyal; profilaksi Abstract Aim: We aimed to determine the rates of compliance with current guidelines for practices of perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis (PAP) and the factors affecting these rates. Orijinal Makale/Original Article

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