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Implementation of an Interactive Computer-Assisted Infection Monitoring Program at the Bedside

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alexandra Heininger ,
Adolf H. Niemetz ,
Martin Keim ,
Reinhold Fretschner ,
Gerd Döring  and
Klaus Unertl
Alexandra Heininger*
Affiliation:
Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Adolf H. Niemetz
Affiliation:
Niemetz GmbH, Weisskirchen, Austria
Martin Keim
Affiliation:
Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Reinhold Fretschner
Affiliation:
Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Gerd Döring
Affiliation:
Department of General and Environmental Hygiene, Hygiene Institute, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Klaus Unertl
Affiliation:
Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
*
Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, University of Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Str 3, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
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Abstract

A new computer-assisted infection monitoring (CAI) software program has been developed for use in an intensive-care unit (ICU). By means of an interactive dialogue with physicians at the bedside, infection diagnoses and therapeutic decisions were recorded prospectively during a 3-month test period. By linking epidemiological data with information about therapeutic decisions, CAI could assess the quality of the therapeutic decisions. Antibiotics chosen empirically before the availability of any culture results, matched the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the subsequently identified pathogens in 74% of the cases. Therapy chosen in collaboration with the computer after the pathogen was known, but before sensitivity results were available, corresponded with the eventual antibiograms of the microorganisms in 90% of the cases. Data analysis by CAI allowed us to assess critically the diagnostic and therapeutic habits in our ICU. Using the query-by-example method, CAI automatically calculated device-associated infection rates.

Type
Information Management
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 20 , Issue 6 , June 1999 , pp. 444 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1999

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