We received 160 responses; 146 complete, 14 incomplete. Respondent characteristics are presented in Table 1. Respondents were predominantly infection control professionals (126/160, 76%), with greater than six years infection prevention experience (110/160, 69%) who were in a leadership role (116/160, 73%. The majority worked primarily in public metropolitan hospitals within IPC teams containing less than three full time equivalents. We received responses from all states and territories except the Australian Capital Territory, with Victoria and New South Wales being most frequently represented. 34/160 (21%) respondents described having experienced a COVID-19 outbreak in their hospital.
Table 1
Demographics of Participants
|
n
|
%
|
Profession
|
Physician
|
36
|
23%
|
Physician trainee
|
2
|
1%
|
Infection Control Professional
|
122
|
76%
|
Years worked in Infection Prevention
|
<1 year
|
7
|
4%
|
1–5
|
43
|
27%
|
6–10 years
|
43
|
27%
|
11–15 years
|
30
|
19%
|
16 years or more
|
37
|
23%
|
Leadership Role
|
Yes
|
116
|
73%
|
Full time equivalent (FTE) Infection Prevention staff
|
<1
|
37
|
23%
|
1 or 2
|
55
|
34%
|
3 or 4
|
32
|
20%
|
≥5
|
29
|
18%
|
Missing
|
7
|
4%
|
The hospital I primarily work in is located in the following area:
|
Metropolitan
|
98
|
61%
|
Regional
|
32
|
20%
|
Rural
|
30
|
19%
|
The hospital I primarily work in is:
|
Public
|
124
|
78%
|
Private
|
32
|
20%
|
I spend an equal time in both private and public hospitals
|
4
|
3%
|
The hospital I primarily work in is located in the following state/territory:
|
VIC
|
55
|
34%
|
NSW
|
53
|
33%
|
QLD
|
17
|
11%
|
NT
|
4
|
3%
|
WA
|
19
|
12%
|
SA
|
6
|
4%
|
TAS
|
6
|
4%
|
Approximate number of beds at hospital:
|
<200
|
59
|
37%
|
200–400
|
41
|
26%
|
>400
|
60
|
38%
|
Approximately number of confirmed COVID-19 inpatients treated at the hospital
|
0
|
51
|
32%
|
1–10
|
42
|
26%
|
11–25
|
20
|
13%
|
>25
|
43
|
27%
|
I don’t know
|
4
|
3%
|
Outbreaks or clusters at the hospital
|
Yes
|
34
|
21%
|
No
|
110
|
69%
|
I don’t know
|
2
|
1%
|
Missing
|
14
|
9%
|
The survey covered the key domains of personal protective equipment (PPE), guidelines, communication, redeployment, training and personal experience.
Personal Protective Equipment
In general, respondents either ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they had sufficient information regarding PPE (123/152, 81%), and that PPE was available in both sufficient quantity (117/152, 77%) and quality (106/152, 70%)(Fig. 1). There was, however, general agreement that the provision of multiple different brands and models of PPE was the source of concern.
Guidelines
More than half of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that government guidelines were supported by scientific evidence, they increased the acceptability of local guidelines, they were sufficiently detailed and were clear and unambiguous (Fig. 3).
In contrast to general support for the content of government guidelines, respondents agreed with a number of barriers to their implementation. Among such barriers were the high frequency of guideline modification (84/148, 57%), the release of guideline updates late at night or before the weekend (96/148, 65%), and contradictory information from professional societies (95/148, 64%), other hospitals (59/148, 40%), news media (73/148, 49%), and social media (81/148 55%) (Fig. 2).
Communication
The four stakeholder groups identified were government, hospital executive, hospital IPC and hospital staff. The channels that infection prevention thought that had an excellent flow of information was within the IPC team and IPC to hospital executive. The communication channel that infection prevention thought was the worst was the government to IPC (Fig. 4).
Redeployment
Ninety-two respondents indicated that redeployment occurred at their hospital. The respondents identified written standard operating procedures, formal training, and competency with computing skills as being more important for successful redeployment of the IPC team than pre-existing IPC knowledge.
Personal Experience
The greatest concern for respondents was an outbreak occurring at the hospital they worked in and least concerned about acquiring COVID-19 themselves. All respondents reported an increase. In workload. The majority of respondents found that the increased workload prevented from completing work (97/154 63%) and difficulty in completing routine infection prevention work 86/154 56%). The then lead to feelings of burn out to a great extent in respondents (74/154 48%).