The electronic medical record as a tool for infection surveillance: successful automation of device-days.
BACKGROUND
Manual collection of central venous catheter, ventilator, and indwelling urinary catheter device-days is time-consuming, often restricted to intensive care units (ICU) and prone to error.


METHODS
We describe the use of an electronic medical record to extract existing clinical documentation of invasive devices. This allowed automated device-days calculations for device-associated infection surveillance in an acute care setting.


RESULTS
The automated system had high sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (>0.90) compared with chart review. The system is not restricted to ICUs and reduces surveillance efforts by a conservative estimate of over 3.5 work-weeks per year in our setting. Eighty percent of urinary catheter days and 50% of central venous catheter-days occurred outside the ICU.


CONCLUSIONS
Device-days may be automatically extracted from an existing electronic medical record with a higher degree of accuracy than manual collection while saving valuable personnel resources.
Wright
Marc-Oliver
MO
Department of Infection Control, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL. Electronic address: mwright@northshore.org.
Fisher
Adrienne
A
Department of Infection Control, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL.
John
Maria
M
Department of Medical Informatics, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL.
Reynolds
Kate
K
Department of Infection Control, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL.
Peterson
Lance R
LR
Department of Infection Control, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL.
Robicsek
Ari
A
Department of Infection Control, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL.
D055499:Catheter-Related Infections; D002405:Catheterization, Central Venous / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002641:Chicago; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods*; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D016357:Infection Control Practitioners; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014546:Urinary Catheterization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data