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2/4/2021 3:00 AM 2/4/2021 4:00 AM Webinar Leader; Provider

Archive: February 4, 2021

Patients should never have to worry about getting an infection while in hospital. Yet every year, many hospitalized Canadians continue to acquire an infection during their hospital stay. Viral respiratory infections (VRI) cause increased morbidity and mortality in both adult and pediatric healthcare settings. The emergence of SARS, avian influenza, novel H1N1 influenza, MERS-CoV and, recently, COVID-19 have underlined the need for data to inform infection prevention and control practices for respiratory pathogens in healthcare settings. A hospital's ability to prevent nosocomial transmission of COVID-19 and other VRI, is dependent upon their ability to track VRI in both the community and in healthcare settings. The Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP) is a system that tracks VRI and other infection among adults and pediatric patients in Canadian hospitals.

This webinar:

  • Provided an overview of the CNISP COVID-19 surveillance protocol and definitions
  • Presented key findings to date of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in CNISP hospitals
  • Provided participants an opportunity to hear from participating CNISP hospitals regarding their experience in using the protocol for collecting and reporting COVID-19 surveillance data
  • Provided an opportunity for hospitals who do not participate in the CNSIP to learn about the protocol and ask questions of CNISP staff and participants.

 
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Speakers

Robyn Mitchell

Robyn Mitchell

Robyn is a Senior Epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Canada.  She completed her Master of Health Science in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto and her field epidemiology training at the Montreal Health Department.



Blanda ChowBlanda Chow

Blanda Chow is an Epidemiologist with Alberta Health Services, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) program and has been with the program since 2013 starting as an Analyst. She completed her Master of Public Health degree, BSc in Nursing, and BSc in Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Her current role with IPC allows her to provide surveillance support and assistance to members of the IPC program province-wide in improving and strengthening data quality. She has worked with CNISP in supporting collection of data for the COVID-19 protocol since the start of the pandemic.

Jennifer EllisonJennifer Ellison

Jennifer Ellison has a BSc in Cellular Molecular and Microbial Biology and a MSc in Hospital Epidemiology and has been employed as an Epidemiologist with the Alberta Health Services, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) program since 2017. Her current role allows her to provide surveillance support and assistance to members of the IPC program province-wide in an effort to improve and strengthen data quality. She worked with CNISP to develop the national COVID-19 protocol and has continued to support that data entry since the start of the pandemic. 

Elaine Hunter Gutierrez

Elaine Hunter Gutierrez is the Interim Coordinator of Infection Prevention and Control at London Health Sciences Centre. She completed her Masters of Epidemiology and Biostatics and a Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Health Sciences at Western University. 

About CNISP

The Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP) is a collaborative effort between the Public Health Agency of Canada's Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control (CCDIC) and the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), and sentinel hospitals across Canada who participate as members of the Canadian Hospital Epidemiology Committee (CHEC), a standing committee of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (AMMI) Canada.

Established in 1994, the objectives of CNISP are to provide national and regional rates and trends on selected healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistant organisms (AROs), as well as provide key information that informs the development of federal, provincial and territorial infection prevention and control programs and policies. At present, 78 sentinel hospitals from 10 provinces and 1 territory participate in the CNISP network.

For more information about CNIPS or to access the CNISP protocols, including the COVID-19 protocol visit the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. The Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP) Publications (patientsafetyinstitute.ca)