Scholars@Duke
Kristen V. Dicks

Kristen V. Dicks

Associate Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Infectious Diseases
kristen.dicks@duke.edu
40 Duke Medicine Circle, Clinic 1K, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Beyond Infection: Mortality and End-of-Life Care Associated With Infectious Disease Consultation in an Academic Health System.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · October 15, 2024 BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases (ID) physicians are increasingly faced with the challenge of caring for patients with terminal illnesses or incurable infections. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort of all patients with an ID consult within an academic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disparities in Mpox Vaccination Among Priority Populations During the 2022 Outbreak.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · September 2023 BACKGROUND: The 2022 mpox outbreak disproportionately affected men who have sex with men and persons living with HIV (PLWH). A 2-dose mpox vaccine series was deployed in mid-2022. Structural racism and insurance status may have affected equitable vaccinati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Concurrent Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Among Patients Tested for Mpox at a Tertiary Healthcare System.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · August 2023 Coinfection with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and mpox is common. We evaluated concurrent STI testing among Duke Health patients tested for mpox. We found that most patients tested for mpox were not comprehensively tested for STIs, despite concur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Electronic health record-based readmission risk model performance for patients undergoing outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT).

Journal Article PLOS Digit Health · August 2023 BACKGROUND: Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) provides coordinated services to deliver parenteral antibiotics outside of the acute care setting. However, the reduction in monitoring and supervision may impact the risks of readmission to the h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Utility of a risk assessment model in predicting 30 day unplanned hospital readmission in adult patients receiving outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy.

Journal Article JAC Antimicrob Resist · February 2023 OBJECTIVES: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is associated with high hospital readmission rates. A 30 day unplanned readmission risk prediction model for OPAT patients has been developed in the UK. Given significant differences in patient ... Full text Link to item Cite

Estimated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Decolonization in Intensive Care Units Associated With Single-Application Chlorhexidine Gluconate or Mupirocin.

Journal Article JAMA network open · March 2021 ImportanceChlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) and mupirocin are widely used to decolonize patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and reduce risks associated with infection in hospitalized populations. Quantifying the associatio ... Full text Cite

Geographic analysis of latent tuberculosis screening: A health system approach.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2020 BACKGROUND: Novel approaches are required to better focus latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) efforts in low-prevalence regions. Geographic information systems, used within large health systems, may provide one such approach. METHODS: A retrospective, cro ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Molecular Diagnostics for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.

Journal Article Annu Rev Med · January 27, 2019 Resistance to antimycobacterial drugs is a major barrier to effective treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Molecular diagnostic techniques based on the association between specific gene mutations and phenotypic resistance to certain drugs off ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of radiology reports on timely tuberculosis diagnosis.

Journal Article Postgrad Med J · September 2018 PURPOSE: As tuberculosis becomes less common in higher income countries, clinician familiarity with the disease is declining. Little is known about how chest radiograph interpretations affect tuberculosis care. We sought to determine how tuberculosis-relat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Suboptimal HIV Testing Among Patients Admitted With Pneumonia: A Missed Opportunity.

Journal Article AIDS Educ Prev · August 2017 Patients admitted with pneumonia are at higher risk for HIV and should be routinely screened. We examined a retrospective cohort of patients admitted to Duke University Health System with a primary diagnosis of pneumonia. During the study period, 6,951 per ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clinical Outcomes and Healthcare Utilization Related to Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Infections in Community Hospitals.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · January 2017 OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of multidrug-resistant gram-negative rod (MDR-GNR) infections on mortality and healthcare resource utilization in community hospitals. DESIGN Two matched case-control analyses. SETTING Six community hospitals participating ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Multicenter Pragmatic Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Chlorhexidine Gluconate Bathing in Community Hospital Intensive Care Units.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · July 2016 OBJECTIVE To determine whether daily chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing of intensive care unit (ICU) patients leads to a decrease in hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), particularly infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA ... Full text Link to item Cite

Calculating the economic benefits of what didn't happen.

Journal Article Int J Tuberc Lung Dis · July 2016 Full text Link to item Cite

Epidemiology of Surgical Site Infection in a Community Hospital Network.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · May 2016 OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of complex surgical site infection (SSI) following commonly performed surgical procedures in community hospitals and to characterize trends of SSI prevalence rates over time for MRSA and other common pathogens METHOD ... Full text Link to item Cite

An Automated Surveillance Strategy to Identify Infectious Complications After Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Procedures.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · December 2015 Background.  The optimum approach for infectious complication surveillance for cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) procedures is unclear. We created an automated surveillance tool for infectious complications after CIED procedures. Methods.  Adult ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Short Operative Duration and Surgical Site Infection Risk in Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Procedures.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · December 2015 OBJECTIVE: To determine the association (1) between shorter operative duration and surgical site infection (SSI) and (2) between surgeon median operative duration and SSI risk among first-time hip and knee arthroplasties. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study ... Full text Link to item Cite

Seasonal Variation of Common Surgical Site Infections: Does Season Matter?

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · September 2015 OBJECTIVE: To evaluate seasonal variation in the rate of surgical site infections (SSI) following commonly performed surgical procedures. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: We analyzed 6 years (January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2012) of data ... Full text Link to item Cite

Postoperative infection in spine surgery: does the month matter?

Journal Article J Neurosurg Spine · July 2015 OBJECT: The relationship between time of year and surgical site infection (SSI) following neurosurgical procedures is poorly understood. Authors of previous reports have demonstrated that rates of SSI following neurosurgical procedures performed during the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Delay in diagnosis of invasive surgical site infections following knee arthroplasty versus hip arthroplasty.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · April 1, 2015 BACKGROUND: The timing of diagnosis of invasive surgical site infection (SSI) following joint replacement surgery is an important criterion used to determine subsequent medical and surgical management. METHODS: We compared time to diagnosis of invasive SSI ... Full text Link to item Cite

The potential impact of excluding funguria from the surveillance definition of catheter-associated urinary tract infection.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · April 2015 Funguria rarely represents true infection in the urinary tract. Excluding yeast from the catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) surveillance definition reduced CAUTI rates by nearly 25% in community hospitals and at an academic, tertiary-care ... Full text Link to item Cite

A comparison between National Healthcare Safety Network laboratory-identified event reporting versus traditional surveillance for Clostridium difficile infection.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · February 2015 OBJECTIVE Hospitals in the National Healthcare Safety Network began reporting laboratory-identified (LabID) Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) events in January 2013. Our study quantified the differences between the LabID and traditional surveillance me ... Full text Link to item Cite

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection surveillance: National Healthcare Safety Network's laboratory-identified event reporting versus traditional laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection surveillance.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · October 2014 Hospitals must report cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (BSI) using a new laboratory-identified (LabID) event reporting module. BSI rates obtained using LabID differ from rates of BSI obtained from traditional surve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Surveying the surveillance: surgical site infections excluded by the January 2013 updated surveillance definitions.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · May 2014 The updated 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network definitions for surgical site infections (SSIs) reduced the duration of prolonged surveillance from 1 year to 90 days and defined which procedure types require p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outbreak of bacteremia due to Burkholderia contaminans linked to intravenous fentanyl from an institutional compounding pharmacy.

Journal Article JAMA Intern Med · April 2014 IMPORTANCE Many health care facilities compound medications on site to fulfill local demands when customized formulations are needed, national supply is critically low, or costs for manufactured pharmaceuticals are excessive. Small, institutional compoundi ... Full text Link to item Cite

"What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over": epidemiology and risk factors for bloodstream infections following cardiac catheterization.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · August 2012 No standard definition exists for surveillance and characterization of the epidemiology of bloodstream infections (BSIs) after cardiac catheterization (CC) procedures. We proposed a novel case definition and determined the epidemiology and risk factors of ... Full text Link to item Cite