In this week's episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Daniela Karanfilovska. Daniela is an infection prevention nurse at Alfred Health in Melbourne. She led a paper published recently in the Journal of Hospital Infection in which a Delphi method was used to create an assessment tool that can be used to assess the preventability of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. The tools also outlines potential action. The paper can be found here https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00223-1/fulltext.
The Delphi technique uses a repeated survey approach where the opinions of experts can be used to refine and develop a consensus as to elements that should form part of the tool under development. Other papers that have used this method or a modified version include:
- Williams, C. K. and H. Carnahan (2013). "Development and validation of tools for assessing use of personal protective equipment in health care." Am J Infect Control 41(1): 28-32.
- O'Boyle, C., M. Jackson and S. J. Henly (2002). "Staffing requirements for infection control programs in US health care facilities: Delphi project." Am J Infect Control 30(6): 321-333.
- Lynch, P., M. Jackson and S. Saint (2001). "Research Priorities Project, year 2000: establishing a direction for infection control and hospital epidemiology." Am J Infect Control 29(2): 73-78.
- Meddings, J., S. Saint, K. E. Fowler, E. Gaies, A. Hickner, S. L. Krein and S. J. Bernstein (2015). "The Ann Arbor Criteria for Appropriate Urinary Catheter Use in Hospitalized Medical Patients: Results Obtained by Using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method." Ann Intern Med 162(9 Suppl): S1-34.
