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September 23, 2024
TECH AND DISEASE TRENDS
Impact Story
PCR Screening at a British Hospital Enables Timely Infection Control
At Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS, the turnaround time for carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales (CPE) testing using culture and phenotypic confirmation was up to 72 hours.
Because there was a lack of rooms to isolate the patients at the hospital, patients could be released before their test results were available.
This delay increased the risk of the spread of CPE, resulting in the loss of beds and ward closures to prevent further spread of CPE. The cost of losing a single bed was £200 a day, amounting to £150,000 if a ward with 25 beds was forced to shut down for a month.
There was a critical need for a faster CPE screening method to eliminate the possibility of patients spreading CPE or being discharged before they received their test results.
In order to avoid delays and prevent the spread of CPE, the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust implemented PCR-based CPE testing using the Xpert® Carba-R test on a GeneXpert® Infinity system to enable faster screening. The Xpert Carba-R test provides results in 50 minutes, significantly reducing the total turnaround time (TAT) from 72 hours to 4 hours.
The expedited TAT allowed room bays to be decanted and decontaminated quickly, reducing the number of beds lost to CPE due to contamination measures by 50%.
"The introduction of rapid molecular testing for carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales allowed us to shorten the time to result to a matter of hours instead of days, identify patients quickly and take the necessary precautions quickly."
-- Dr. Tim Neal, Mersey Programme Director Microbiology, Department of Microbiology Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
Listen to Dr. Tim Neal, Mersey Programme Director Microbiology, Department of Microbiology Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust discuss infection control within his organizations.
Learn more about PCR-based CPE testing using the Xpert® Carba-R test on the GeneXpert® Infinity system to enable faster screening.
References:
Corless, C E et al. “Impact of different carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales screening strategies in a hospital setting.” Infection prevention in practice vol. 2,3 100011. 21 May. 2020
doi:10.1016/j.infpip.2019.100011
CE-IVD. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device. May not be available in all countries.
Projections and Realized Results are specific to the institution where they were obtained and may not reflect the results achievable at other institutions
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