title: An expert system for culture-based infection control surveillance.
abstract: Hospital-acquired infections represent a significant cause of prolonged inpatient days and additional hospital charges. We describe an expert system, called GERMWATCHER, which applies the Centers for Disease Control's National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance culture-based criteria for detecting nosocomial infections. GERMWATCHER has been deployed at Barnes Hospital, a large tertiary-care teaching hospital, since February 1993. We describe the Barnes Hospital infection control environment, the expert system design, and a predeployment performance evaluation. We then compare our system to other efforts in computer-based infection control.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Informatics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Steib
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Dunagan
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003201:Computers; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005103:Expert Systems; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods; D008828:Microbiological Techniques; D008923:Missouri