Survey Underway to Answer Key Questions about the COVID-19 Cluster
Infection control experts at the Brigham are conducting a survey of employees affected by the recent COVID-19 cluster at the Brigham to understand risk factors associated with infection.
“There are important questions about the cluster that only the staff can help us answer,” said Meghan Baker, MD, ScD, a physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases. “At the root of it, we want to understand how transmission happened in our hospital, so the survey includes questions about work areas, PPE, patient care, etc. When we analyze data from survey responses, we hope to gain key insights that will help us improve patient care and safety for everyone.”
The team is contacting everyone affected by the cluster and are asking them to take a REDCap survey, regardless of whether they tested positive or negative for COVID-19. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure web-based software application for electronic collection and management of data.
The survey includes questions on topics such as patient interactions, behavior, transportation, personal protective equipment, exposure and many other factors that might influence infection. The Infection Control team will analyze the data, comparing the answers from the group of participants who became infected with those from the group of participants who did not.
“Our goal is to understand what happened more clearly and what steps we can take in the future to keep our patients and our staff safe,” said Michael Klompas, MD, MPH, hospital epidemiologist.