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Tracing Infection Rates During a Pandemic

Elina Paul, MPH ‘19, had only been working in the Department of Infection Prevention and Control at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as an infection prevention associate for several months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“The best part about what I do is being able to be a public health professional in this time,” Paul said. “I can’t imagine experiencing [the pandemic] with any other team, honestly, because my team has been so amazing and so proactive. The work that we’re all doing is definitely important and meaningful.”

Before COVID-19, Paul’s job involved a bit less urgency, but was critical to the hospital’s functioning. As an infection prevention associate, she supports the Infection Preventionists by performing surveillance for, and mandatory reporting of, healthcare associated infections as well as responding to other infection prevention data requests.

“As well as helping identify these infections, my team and I also track and ensure that the data for the entire hospital is upto-date and entered in a timely manner so all units and parts of the entire hospital can see where we’re at with infection rates,” Paul said.

In support of the Infection Preventionists, Paul supports the team’s preparations for outbreak and exposure response and explores how the team can use data analytics tools for contact tracing.

“If we had a patient who was a potential chicken pox case, I would use data tools to help our Infection Preventionists identify if any patients or staff may have been potentially exposed.”

“We assure the appropriate isolation precautions were in place, and that the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) was worn by healthcare providers to identify if there was any risk of transmission,” Paul said.

But since the COVID-19 outbreak, Paul’s job has shifted. “It’s been quite the learning experience,” she said.

Paul’s personal responsibilities as an infection prevention associate have been to help the Infection Prevention team’s COVID-19 response by performing additional surveillance and reporting, including mandatory reporting to local, state, and federal governments about the hospital’s pandemic response.

Paul has been partnering with the hospital’s emergency preparedness team, working closely with them to complete the local, state, and federal reporting. Paul has also been collaborating with the Center for Health Care Quality Analytics team within CHOP to build out automated data pulls and dashboards to help with the reporting, instead of having to manually call all the different departments within the large facility to gather the information her department needs for reporting.

Part of the reason why I decided to get my MPH was to learn more about containing outbreaks, exposures, and vaccine preventable diseases.

Paul’s team is letting the analysts know what fields of information the government is asking for. Then the analysts are able to use code to take the data from CHOP to pull it into apps that create tables for those who need to access it. The data is refreshed every day, Paul explained.

“This type of work has always been something that has interested me, which is why I was very excited when I accepted this job, and then a couple months later, I’m experiencing a pandemic,” Paul said. “Part of the reason why I decided to get my MPH was to learn more about containing outbreaks, exposures, and vaccine preventable diseases.”

The faculty at Dornsife was very skilled at making sure she had the experiences and opportunities she was seeking, Paul added.

“I really wanted to make sure that I had a thesis experience that was going to help me with my career and actually mean something,” Paul said. She wound up writing her thesis about vaccine policy in Philadelphia, after an internship at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

“Their engagement with the students is something that I really admired,” Paul said about the Dornsife faculty and staff. “You weren’t just another number to them. They wanted to make sure that you got what you needed out of the experience.”

The work she did while at Dornsife also helped her land a job at CHOP — an opportunity too good to pass up, Paul said.

“While it is a very scary time, it is providing me with a really great learning experience.”

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