Introduction of influenza Point of Care Testing (PoCT) to reduce hospital acquired flu & bed days lost to flu during 2017/18 season

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Background & Problems

During the 2016/17 flu season our Trust saw a large percentage of positive flu results from patients who had been in the Trust for 5 days or more and who had not been admitted with flu. These were deemed hospital acquired flu. In addition it was noted that several bed days had been lost during this season directly as a result of flu outbreaks and hospital acquisitions. I felt that this was unacceptable and postulated that there may be a way to reduce this happening in subsequent seasons. I used point of care testing (POCT) for flu to allow more rapid testing of patients very early into their admissions.

Aim

My aim was to reduce the percentage of hospital acquired flu cases by 50% and to reduce the bed days lost as a direct result of flu to 50% as well.

Method

A driver diagram and a stakeholder chart were produced. In addition PDSA cycles were undertaken looking at the effectiveness of the project.

Results

The results were incredibly positive. I calculated a saving to the trust of £228,000, 192 patients did not acquire flu (a reduction of over 50% of total flu positives compared with the preceding year) that would have done with the previous year’s approach and a reduction in bed days lost to flu of over 90%. In addition I calculated that the projected prevented 12 deaths from hospital acquired flu.

Implications

The benefits of rapid testing for flu for patients were clearly demonstrated. Going forward there is a strong desire to expand upon the service offered last year and have cross site machines.