During the first 12 weeks of the COVID-19 surge, Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital cared for thousands of patients, including hundreds of them with COVID-19. In a new analysis published in JAMA Network Open, the hospital's infection control team found that there was virtually no transmission of the disease within the hospital during that time.
Researchers examined data on 9,149 patients admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital between March 7, when the first COVID-19 patient was admitted, and May 30. During that 12-week period, 697 patients testing positive for the new coronavirus.
Researchers found that only two patients likely acquired the disease in the hospital, with one likely becoming infected by their spouse, who visited the patient at the hospital before universal masking and visitor restrictions were implemented at the hospital.
The researchers credit the hospital's rigorous infection control measures with the low COVID-19 transmission, even at the height of the pandemic in Massachusetts.
Infection control policies at the hospital include universal masking of all patients, staff and visitors, dedicated COVID-19 units with airborne infection isolation rooms, a restricted visitor policy and testing of all patients admitted to the hospital.
"Our data show that in a hospital with robust, rigorous infection control measures, it is very much possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to patients," said corresponding study author Chanu Rhee, MD, an infectious disease and critical care physician and associate hospital epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's.