Effect of serious infectious threat response initiative (SITRI) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System

BACKGROUND: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) increased worldwide as health care facilities struggled through the pandemic. We describe our methods in the implementation of a programmatic initiative called serious infectious threat response initiative (SITRI) that was conceptualized to support our staff, to facilitate day-to-day clinical operations related to COVID-19 and to shield our infection prevention and control program (IPC) from excessive COVID-19 work burden to the extent possible to retain routine prevention focused efforts. Post implementation, we sought to understand and quantify the workload and utility of SITRI, IPC burnout and HAI incidence during the implementation period. METHODS: We correlated the number of weekly phone calls with inpatient COVID-19 census, assessed types of calls, staff feedback, IPC burnout, pre- and postpandemic HAI incidence, and the cost. RESULTS: There was significant correlation between SITRI calls and the weekly average COVID-19 census (P = .00026). IPC burnout evaluation indicated improvement in scores for exhaustion and reduced achievement and worsening in score for depersonalization. HAI incidence did not increase. SITRI's cost was $360,000. CONCLUSIONS: Staff solicited SITRI's support in tandem with the COVID-19 burden. Our HAI during the pandemic did not increase while SITRI was operational in contrast to what is published in literature.