Rapid Influenza Testing Can Improve Patient Care

Hospitals that operate at close to full capacity on a regular basis may have problems during annual flu seasons, when increased patient volume can rapidly lead to overcrowding and deteriorated quality of care. Researchers have now assessed whether providing rapid influenza testing with a reverse transcriptase-PCR assay could positively affect patient care. In a 1100-patient tertiary-care hospital in Israel, the investigators compared clinical outcomes of once-daily standard diagnostic testing 5 days per week during the 2016–2017 flu season versus testing provided every 2 hours during the day shift 7 days per week during the 2017–2018 flu season.

During the intervention season 5006 patients were admitted, of whom 437 were diagnosed with influ…