title: Data requirements for electronic surveillance of healthcare-associated infections.
abstract: Electronic surveillance for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is increasingly widespread. This is driven by multiple factors: a greater burden on hospitals to provide surveillance data to state and national agencies, financial pressures to be more efficient with HAI surveillance, the desire for more objective comparisons between healthcare facilities, and the increasing amount of patient data available electronically. Optimal implementation of electronic surveillance requires that specific information be available to the surveillance systems. This white paper reviews different approaches to electronic surveillance, discusses the specific data elements required for performing surveillance, and considers important issues of data validation.
authors.affiliation: Center for Clinical Excellence, BJC HealthCare, and Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Keith F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Woeltje
authors.forename: Michael Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klompas
authors.forename: Marc Oliver
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Gianna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zuccotti
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Trick
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D062486:Public Health Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology