Protective Environment for Hematopoietic Cell Transplant (HSCT) Recipients: The Infectious Diseases Working Party EBMT Analysis of Global Recommendations on Health-Care Facilities

Abstract BACKGROUND: An international global perspective for guidelines for health-care facilities in which HSCT recipients are treated was announced in 2009 by Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research, National Marrow Donor Program, European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease, and Centers for Disease Control. With respect to guidelines on hospital room design and ventilation for HSCT setting, a set of 10 recommendations were presented (Tomblyn et al, 2009). OBJECTIVE: Since the issue is clearly of practical importance to world-wide transplant community, the IDWP-EBMT created a survey in order to present the current status on protective environment for recipients of HSCT, and to analyze the trends and needs in hospital transplant room design and ventilation. METHODS: The questionnaire consisted of 37 questions in all and was divided into 6 sections that included the contact information and details of the protective isolation facility including air filtration, air changes, maintenance, combination of isolation, protective environment room/unit and floor. RESULTS: In all, 177 centres from 36 countries responded to the survey, with average 33% country response rate. Physicians completed 62%, nurses 19% and support staff 19% of the surveys. A total number of 71% of answers were provided to all questions. The total number of unanswered questions was lowest among physicians (23% vs 49%; p CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about the maintenance of protective environments in the HSCT setting was inadequate, reflecting a lacking information between health personnel working in the ward and hospital offices. Only 6 centers were able to meet all 10 recommendations listed by Tomblyn et al and few centers were able to meet all the relevant technical requirements. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.