Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial effect on the delivery of psychiatric healthcare. Inpatient psychiatric healthcare facilities have experienced outbreaks of COVID-19, making these areas particularly vulnerable. Methods Our facility used a multidisciplinary approach to implement enhanced infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions in our psychiatric healthcare areas. Results In a sixteen-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic, our two facilities provided >29,000 patient days of care to 1,807 patients and identified only forty-seven COVID-19 positive psychiatric health inpatients (47/1,807, or 2.6%). We identified the majority of these cases by testing all patients at admission, preventing subsequent outbreaks. Twenty-one psychiatric healthcare personnel were identified as COVID+ during the same period, with 90% linked to an exposure other than a known positive case at work. Discussion The IPC interventions we implemented provided multiple layers of safety for our patients and our staff. Ultimately, this resulted in low SARS-CoV-2 infection rates within our facilities. Conclusions Psychiatric healthcare facilities are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks because they are congregate units that promote therapeutic interactions in shared spaces. IPC interventions used in acute medical care settings can also work effectively in psychiatric healthcare, but often require modifications to ensure staff and patient safety.

We instituted Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Monitors as part of our care of COVID-19 patients in high-risk zones. PPE Monitors aided healthcare personnel (HCP) in donning and doffing, which contributed to nearly zero transmission of COVID-19 to HCP, despite their care of over 1400 COVID-19 patients.

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Overall, engagement and compliance from the crowd-sourced hand hygiene observation program, Clean-In-Clean-Out (CICO), were similar between 2019 (96.6%) and 2020 (96.7%) despite fluctuations within 2020 that reflected our hospital’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience. Shared responsibility and just-in-time reminders can allow manual hand hygiene observation models to be sustainable.

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