Background Personal protective equipment (PPE) helps protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from pathogens and prevents cross-contamination. PPE effectiveness is often undermined by inappropriate doffing methods. Our knowledge of how HCWs approach doffing PPE in practice is limited. In this qualitative study, we examine HCWs’ perspectives about doffing PPE. Methods Thirty participants at a Midwestern academic hospital were recruited and assigned to 1 of 3 doffing simulation scenarios: 3 mask designs (n = 10), 2 gown designs (n = 10), or 2 glove designs (n = 10). Participants were instructed to doff PPE as they would in routine practice. Their performances were video-recorded and reviewed with participants. Semistructured interviews about their doffing approaches were conducted and audio-recorded, then transcribed and thematically analyzed. Results Three overarching themes were identified in interviews: doffing strategies, cognitive processes, and barriers and facilitators. Doffing strategies included doffing safely (minimizing self-contamination) and doffing expediently (eg, ripping PPE off). Cognitive processes during doffing largely pertained to tracking contaminated PPE surfaces, examining PPE design cues (eg, straps), or improvising based on prior experience from training or similar PPE designs. Doffing barriers and facilitators typically related to PPE design, such as PPE fit (or lack of it) and fastener type. Some participants also described personal barriers (eg, glasses, long hair); however, some PPE designs helped mitigate these barriers. Conclusions Efforts to improve HCWs’ doffing performance need to address HCWs’ preferences for both safety and expediency when using PPE, which has implications for PPE design, training approaches, and hospital policies and procedures.

Home specimen self-collection kits with central laboratory testing may improve persistence with PrEP and enhance telehealth programs. We offered Iowa TelePrEP clients the choice of using a home kit or visiting a laboratory site for routine monitoring. Mixed-methods evaluation determined the proportion of clients who chose a kit, factors influencing choice, associations between kit use and completion of indicated laboratory monitoring, and user experience. About 46% (35/77) chose to use a kit. Compared to laboratory site use, kit use was associated with higher completion of extra-genital swabs (OR 6.33, 95% CI 1.20–33.51, for anorectal swabs), but lower completion of blood tests (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.06–0.73 for creatinine). Factors influencing choice included self-efficacy to use kits, time/convenience, and privacy/confidentiality. Clients reported kit use was straight-forward but described challenges with finger prick blood collection. Telehealth PrEP programs should offer clients home kits and support clients with blood collection and kit completion.

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) is a poorly understood condition with significant impact on quality of life. We aimed to better understand the lived experiences of patients with PASC, focusing on the impact of cognitive complaints (“brain fog”) and fatigue on (1) daily activities, (2) work/employment, and (3) interpersonal relationships. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 patients of a Midwestern academic hospital’s post-COVID-19 clinic. We audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interviews thematically using a combined deductive-inductive approach and collected participants’ characteristics from chart review. Participants frequently used descriptive and metaphorical language to describe symptoms that were relapsing-remitting and unpredictable. Fatigue and brain fog affected all domains and identified subthemes included symptoms’ synergistic effects, difficulty with multitasking, lack of support, poor self-perception, and fear of loss of income and employment. Personal relationships were affected with change of responsibilities, difficulty parenting, social isolation, and guilt due to the burdens placed on family. Furthermore, underlying social stigma contributed to negative emotions, which significantly affected emotional and mental health. Our findings highlight PASC’s negative impact on patients’ daily lives. Providers can better support COVID-19 survivors during their recovery by identifying their needs in a sensitive and timely manner.

BackgroundImplementation science experts define champions as “supporting, marketing, and driving through an implementation, overcoming indifference or resistance that the intervention may provoke in an organization.” Many hospitals use designated clinical champions—often called “hand hygiene (HH) champions”—typically to improve hand hygiene compliance. We conducted an ethnographic examination of how infection control teams in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) use the term “HH champion” and how they define the role.MethodsAn ethnographic study was conducted with infection control teams and frontline staff directly involved with hand hygiene across 10 geographically dispersed VHA facilities in the USA. Individual and group semi-structured interviews were conducted with hospital epidemiologists, infection preventionists, multi-drug-resistant organism (MDRO) program coordinators, and quality improvement specialists and frontline staff from June 2014 to September 2017. The team coded the transcripts using thematic content analysis content based on a codebook composed of inductive and deductive themes.ResultsA total of 173 healthcare workers participated in interviews from the 10 VHA facilities. All hand hygiene programs at each facility used the term HH champion to define a core element of their hand hygiene programs. While most described the role of HH champions as providing peer-to-peer coaching, delivering formal and informal education, and promoting hand hygiene, a majority also included hand hygiene surveillance. This conflation of implementation strategies led to contradictory responsibilities for HH champions. Participants described additional barriers to the role of HH champions, including competing priorities, staffing hierarchies, and turnover in the role.ConclusionsHealthcare systems should consider narrowly defining the role of the HH champion as a dedicated individual whose mission is to overcome resistance and improve hand hygiene compliance—and differentiate it from the role of a “compliance auditor.” Returning to the traditional application of the implementation strategy may lead to overall improvements in hand hygiene and reduction of the transmission of healthcare-acquired infections.

ObjectiveAlthough most hospitals report very high levels of hand hygiene compliance (HHC), the accuracy of these overtly observed rates is questionable due to the Hawthorne effect and other sources of bias. In the study, we aimed (1) to compare HHC rates estimated using the standard audit method of overt observation by a known observer and a new audit method that employed a rapid (<15 minutes) “secret shopper” method and (2) to pilot test a novel feedback tool.DesignQuality improvement project using a quasi-experimental stepped-wedge design.SettingThis study was conducted in 5 acute-care hospitals (17 wards, 5 intensive care units) in the Midwestern United States.MethodsSites recruited a hand hygiene observer from outside the acute-care units to rapidly and covertly observe entry and exit HHC during the study period, October 2016–September 2017. After 3 months of observations, sites received a monthly feedback tool that communicated HHC information from the new audit method.ResultsThe absolute difference in HHC estimates between the standard and new audit methods was ~30%. No significant differences in HHC were detected between the baseline and feedback phases (OR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.84–1.01), but the standard audit method had significantly higher estimates than the new audit method (OR, 9.83; 95% CI, 8.82–10.95).ConclusionsHHC estimates obtained using the new audit method were substantially lower than estimates obtained using the standard audit method, suggesting that the rapid, secret-shopper method is less subject to bias. Providing feedback using HHC from the new audit method did not seem to impact HHC behaviors.

There is a recent convergence of three trends that are transforming behavioral health care: 1) patient engagement and activation; 2) electronic capture of patient-reported outcomes integrated directly into the patients' electronic health record to be used for measurement-based care; and 3) patient-facing health information technology, centering around patient portals, that empowed patients by providing them access to parts of their medical record. Though each component of this model is currently available; they have yet to achieve widespread standard of care. This paper will discuss general considerations to be explored when implementing electronic capture of patient-reported outcomes and multifunctional patient portals in the context of a general behavioral health clinic. First, it presents strategies for implementing electronic data capture of standard behavioral health measures including the process for selecting instruments, setting technical algorithms for standard patient selection, psychometric considerations, and workflow analysis. Electronic data capture can occur through electronic patient portals, about which there is extensive debate within behavioral health. This paper reviews recent research on allowing patients access to their mental health notes. It also presents some original research on providers' views of note access and secure messaging. Finally, the paper makes recommendations for both future research and clinical practice. The field would benefit from expanding beyond the single focus on note reading and should explore the potential of patient portals as multicomponent Patient

Introduction: Regional partnerships between public health organizations and telehealth programs have the potential to expand access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in rural and small urban areas. However, little is known about the best practices for such partnerships. Iowa TelePrEP, a regional public health-partnered telehealth model created by the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University of Iowa, expanded statewide between 2017 and 2019. This qualitative evaluation assessed the barriers and facilitators to statewide expansion and the lessons learned.Methods: Key informants from public health partners across Iowa participated in a focus group and interviews between May 2019 and November 2020. Public health partners included local health departments and disease intervention specialist/partner services programs. Qualitative data were transcribed and thematically coded. Program documents and routinely collected reporting data were reviewed to provide the context for qualitative findings. Data were analyzed in 2020.Results: TelePrEP expanded in 4 phases through partnerships with 12 public health partners. Public health partners referred 708 clients with pre-exposure prophylaxis indications to telenavigation; of these, 258 were navigated to TelePrEP, and 167 initiated pre-exposure prophylaxis. The facilitators of expansion included early public health partner engagement, model acceptability and inclusion of a navigator, and adaptability to local public health partner settings. The barriers included the need to adapt communication and processes to varying public health partners, difficulty in engaging underserved populations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and perceived gaps in understanding client outcomes.Conclusions: Partnerships between regional telehealth programs and local health departments can expand to the state level and increase the capacity to implement pre-exposure prophylaxis in rural and small urban settings. Partnerships should consider how to balance program adaptability to local public health partners with standardization and scalability.

We describe an intensive group program for older adults, facilitated by a tobacco cessation specialist and a geriatric social worker, designed to focus on factors that maintain smoking behavior. Integral components dealt with issues specific to the older adult such as social isolation or economic need. Pharmacological therapy was provided. Participants with a mean age of 67 years who smoked an average of 19 cigarettes per day completed the program. Sixty-six percent of participants had been treated or were in treatment for depression and/or anxiety. Follow-up was completed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The cessation rate across follow-up points was 68%. This program shows that older adults can maintain smoking cessation when provided with programs designed to address their issues.