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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Radiol Imaging 2021; 31(S 01): S139-S147
DOI: 10.4103/ijri.IJRI_567_20
Original Article

Perception and practice regarding infection control measures in Radiology department during pre-COVID and COVID times—A survey among radiologists and a review of current concepts and literature

Saubhagya Srivastava
Departments of Radiodiagnosis, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India
,
Santosh PV Rai
Departments of Radiodiagnosis, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India
,
Animesh Jain
Departments of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India
,
Suchithra Shenoy
Departments of Microbiology, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Aim: In this study, we aim to evaluate the perception and practice of IPC measures by Radiologists during pre-COVID and present COVID times, while conducting a thorough review of current concepts and literature, to provide a standard operating procedure (SOP) for radiology operations. Methods: This study was conducted by Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Kasturba Medical College, MAHE, Mangalore. After obtaining approval from the institutional ethics committee, and other required permissions, the Google form questionnaire was sent to 350 Radiologists via email and text during the period of May 2020. Data was collected by time-based sampling in the period of fifteen days during the end of the total lockdown time. Results: 54% (n = 152) reported never attending a training session on (Infection Prevention & Control) IPC prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. The perception regarding IPC were found to be good among radiologists as majority of the respondents were correctly able to answer questions regarding IPC. 86% (n = 152) of the respondents believed that their knowledge on IPC has improved during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was revealed that majority of the respondents only started to practice appropriate contact and droplet / procedural precautions only after the COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusion: The present COVID-19 scenario coupled with the lack of knowledge and training regarding IPC amongst radiologists evident from the results of our survey, highlights the need for proper training and establishing standard operating procedures and best practices in IPC pertinent to modern radiology practice

Keywords

COVID-19 - empirical precautions - infection prevention and control - procedural precautions - radiology - source control - standard operating procedure - standard precautions - triage


Publication History

Received: 09 July 2020

Accepted: 17 July 2020

Article published online:
13 July 2021

© 2021. Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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