The Hidden Cost of COVID

In the fall of 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) released a report on the impact COVID-19 had on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in 2020. After a decade of steadily declining HAI numbers, health care facilities across the country experienced a dramatic increase in the number of reported healthcare-associated infections during the first year of the pandemic. The impact of this report has been widespread and highlights the need for health care facilities across the country to return to conventional infection prevention and control practices and build resiliency in these programs to withstand future pandemics.

Join NETEC hosts Jill Morgan and Trish Tennill as they discuss the findings of the NHSN’s report and share best practices and lessons learned from infection prevention and special pathogen experts.  

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Guests

Christa Arguinchona MSN, BSN, CCRN

Christa Arguinchona is the program manager for the Special Pathogens Unit (SPU) and the Rapid Response Team at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Spokane, Washington. Her responsibilities include developing and maintaining a care team for the SPU and developing policies, protocols, and educational and training plans. Christa also conducts training and education for the frontline facilities within Providence Health Care. Christa collaborates with community, regional, and national partners as part of NETEC’s regional treatment center network. Christa has her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing and is certified in Critical Care. She has over 30 years of critical care experience in the neurological/trauma ICU at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital.

Carrie Billman, RN, CIC

Carrie Billman is the infection control program manager for the Johns Hopkins Health System, and a senior infection control epidemiologist for the Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH). In her role at JHH, Carrie leads infection prevention activities for the JHH Biocontainment Unit (BCU), including training and education for trained observers and BCU clinical staff, policy and protocol development, and serves as a lead infection preventionist during BCU activations.

Carrie is a trained pediatric nurse with 13 years of experience with acute and lifesaving burn care and is current faculty for the Johns Hopkins University master’s level course in infection prevention. Carrie is currently pursuing her master’s in Health Profession Education through the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan. 

Meredith Fahy, MPH, RN, CIC

Meredith Fahy has been an infection preventionist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) since August 2019 and is also the biothreats infection preventionist. Previously, she worked as a staff nurse in the Infectious Disease Associates outpatient clinic where she helped develop and implement a nurse-driven initiative to improve retention in care for high-risk HIV patients, as a staff nurse in the MGH Emergency Department, and has volunteered with the Mercy Ships organization in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She graduated from Northeastern University with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2009 and Master of Public Health in 2016. Meredith lives outside of Boston with her husband and dog.

Jennifer Garland RN, PhD, CIC

Jennifer Garland is a disease-specific care reviewer for the Joint Commission and the Special Pathogens Program Manager at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She is a registered nurse with clinical experience in critical care, public health, neuroscience, and program development.

From January to March 2015, Dr. Garland worked as a clinical care provider in the Maforki Ebola Treatment Unit in Port Loko, Sierra Leone with Partners In Health and The World Health Organization (WHO). She is a subject matter expert for NETEC and a member of The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) with WHO. Dr. Garland is also certified in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Hosts

Jill Morgan

RN, Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA

Patricia Ann Tennill

RN, BSN, Associate Director of Nursing, Bellevue Health & Hospitals, New York, NY

Resources

The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on healthcare-associated infections in 2020: A summary of data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network: https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.362

CDC National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN): https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/index.html

NETEC COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus Resources: https://repository.netecweb.org/exhibits/show/ncov/ncov

NETEC COVID-19 Webinar Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5JyGXQ8MP0TZXU2Ldy-jzjLuUNfFX8JZ

NETEC Resource Library: https://repository.netecweb.org