title: Isolation of patients with vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE): efficacy of an electronic alert system.
abstract: This study investigates the implementation of an alert system for the isolation of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) colonized patients. Given the risk of admitting a patient colonized by VRE it is necessary to implement efficient isolation measures. An electronic alert system integrated into a health information system (HIS) could help with the detection of these patients and their isolation in proper units.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Determine the efficacy of an electronic alert system in improving the rate of properly isolation of patients colonized with VRE.
  
  
  METHODS
  two consecutive series of admission in adults units of 67 patients that were infected or colonized with VRE were compared. The time period of the study was six months before the implementation of the alert system and six months post-implementation of the system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of admission with proper isolation of the patient in correct units increased 44% after the alert system implementation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The implementation of an alert system improved the proportion of properly isolated patients with VRE.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. dborbolla@gmail.com
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borbolla
authors.forename: Vanina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Taliercio
authors.forename: Bibiana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schachner
authors.forename: Ana Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gomez Saldano
authors.forename: Estela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salazar
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luna
authors.forename: Fernan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonzalez Bernaldo de Quiros
mesh_terms: D056902:Clinical Alarms; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D016983:Enterococcus; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems; D010356:Patient Isolation; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance