Utilization of paediatric isolation facilities in a TB-endemic setting

Table 1 Paediatric isolation room utilization

Variable	Total	Percentage	Interquartile range
Discrete patient isolation episodes	335	100	-
Median patient age (months)	17	-	6–50
Median stay in isolation room (days)	4	-	2–8
Indication for isolation
- infection control (IPC) purposes	260	78
- nursing care	46	14	-
- palliation/privacy	13	4
- other^a	16	4
Transmission-based precautions^b applied	260	100
- airborne precautions	136	52	-
- droplet precautions	57	22
- contact precautions	67	26
	Mean	Minimum	Maximum
Isolation room occupancy rate^c	2172/3294	225/540	487/558
Isolation room occupancy rate^c	(66 %)	(42 %)	(87 %)

IPC = infection prevention and control
^aother = no obvious reason for isolation (n = 11), behavioural isolation (n = 3), protective isolation (n = 2)
^bUsing the 2007 CDC isolation guidelines[1]
^cCalculated as the sum of days when isolation rooms (n = 18) were occupied divided by [total isolation bed capacity x number of days in the observation period] i.e. 6 months to calculate mean or 1 month to calculate minimum and maximum occupancy rates

ISSN: 2047-2994