The impact of point-of-care testing for influenza A and B on patient flow and management in a medical assessment unit of a general hospital

OBJECTIVES: Timely implementation of influenza infection control and treatment can significantly reduce the impact on Hospital resources and patient management when demand is at peak. Turnaround times of Laboratory based screening tests for the diagnosis of influenza may have an impact on the implementation of infection control measures and treatment. In this study the objectives included determining the correlation between the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care testing (POCT) instrument using the Influenza A&B2 test and the laboratory based GeneXpert Flu+RSV kit. In addition the impact of the POCT instrument on the prescription of antivirals and antibiotics was evaluated by comparing with practice when the instrument was not in place. RESULTS: The results of the correlation study with a cohort of 54 patients revealed the Abbott ID NOW POCT has 92% sensitivity for the detection of Influenza A, while specificity was 100% for both Influenza A and B. The impact of the POCT instrument on the frequency of prescription of antivirals and amount of antibiotics consumed (33% reduction in antibiotic consumption in a cohort of 65 (2017) and 61 (2018)) was significant. In addition the average patient length of Hospital stay was significantly reduced from 5.26 days to 3.73 days.