Assessing preventability of Staph aureus bacteraemia with Daniela Karanfilovska

In this week's episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Daniela Karanfilovska. Daniela is an infection prevention nurse at Alfred Health in Melbourne. She led a paper published recently in the Journal of Hospital Infection in which a Delphi method was used to create an assessment tool that can be used to assess the preventability of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. The tools also outlines potential action. The paper can be found here https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00223-1/fulltext.

The Delphi technique uses a repeated survey approach where the opinions of experts can be used to refine and develop a consensus as to elements that should form part of the tool under development. Other papers that have used this method or a modified version include:

• Williams, C. K. and H. Carnahan (2013). "Development and validation of tools for assessing use of personal protective equipment in health care." Am J Infect Control 41(1): 28-32.
• O'Boyle, C., M. Jackson and S. J. Henly (2002). "Staffing requirements for infection control programs in US health care facilities: Delphi project." Am J Infect Control 30(6): 321-333.
• Lynch, P., M. Jackson and S. Saint (2001). "Research Priorities Project, year 2000: establishing a direction for infection control and hospital epidemiology." Am J Infect Control 29(2): 73-78.
• Meddings, J., S. Saint, K. E. Fowler, E. Gaies, A. Hickner, S. L. Krein and S. J. Bernstein (2015). "The Ann Arbor Criteria for Appropriate Urinary Catheter Use in Hospitalized Medical Patients: Results Obtained by Using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method." Ann Intern Med 162(9 Suppl): S1-34.