STOP-2

SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Occurrences among Healthcare Personnel Prospective Effort (STOP-2) is a prospective quality improvement study launched in December 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. The primary purpose of this study is to charactarize the transmission linkages among healthcare workers at Boston Medical Center in cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Aims

1A. To identify transmission linkages among Boston Medical Center (BMC) healthcare personnel and in suspected nosocomial patient SARS-CoV-2 cases, which would have been missed by traditional contact tracing methods alone.

1B. To increase the number of SARS-CoV-2 nosocomial cases identified by recognizing areas in the hospital with active ongoing transmission to target for active SARS-CoV-2 case finding and testing.

2. To use near real-time SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing to separate suspected SARS-CoV-2 nosocomial transmission clusters, identified through traditional contract tracing methods, which represent several introductions of different SARS-CoV-2 strains from the community rather than nosocomial transmission of a single strain.

3. To feedback in near real time hospital-based (lapses in PPE or distancing) vs. community-based (e.g., outside hospital gatherings) factors contributing to increased SARS-CoV-2 risk among BMC healthcare personnel.

Methods

The target sample size for STOP-2 is 2,500 participants. Healthcare workers at BMC who tested positive for COVID-19 on or after December 10, 2020 are eligible to participate. Data on COVID-19 testing information, symptoms, shifts worked, exposures, employment information, use of shared space, time spent in high-risk community settings, and hospitalizations are collected from participant records and BMC Infection Control contact tracing findings; viral genomic sequencing is also performed. These data are used to characterize transmission networks for COVID-19 among BMC healthcare personnel.

Study status: Enrolling