Infection Control

CDC and Premier partner to develop CLABSI surveillance

Briefings on Infection Control, July 1, 2010

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.

New technology aims to provide much-needed streamlined data collection

Time and again, IPs voice their displeasure and frustration with spending more time at their desk disseminating data on healthcare-associated infections (HAI) within their facility than actually doing what their job requires: preventing infections. 

Further, the economic climate has left many IPs without adequate staffing to conduct surveillance and insufficient technology to easily track infections. A 2009 survey of IPs, published by APIC, indicated that one-quarter of respondents have reduced surveillance activities to detect, track, and manage HAIs. Only one in five respondents had electronic data-mining systems that allowed them to quickly gather statistics and intervene with prevention techniques. 

Additionally, some states require reporting of HAIs, but the process can be cumbersome, taking away time from more productive activities. 

In May, however, the CDC announced its partnership with the Premier healthcare alliance for a joint research initiative that will test and develop new surveillance technology specifically for tracking and reporting central line?associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). ?Infection preventionists have a challenging job that is critical to patient safety,? Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO, said in a press release. ?By automating the surveillance process to help them better predict and act upon adverse events as quickly as possible, we hope to deliver the tools they need to become even better advocates for infection prevention strategies that improve patient outcomes.?

Ultimately, the project will also incorporate a reporting system into the CDC?s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). 

?The collaboration we have with Premier is focused on evaluating the utility of using electronic data sources to electronically capture the key data elements to reliably identify patients with central line?associated bloodstream infections,? says Scott Fridkin, MD, deputy surveillance branch chief in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC. ?The ultimate goal is to incorporate these electronic data sources to improve the work flow of infection preventionists to do their job and/or minimize the amount of data collection burden they need to get a reliable and useful healthcare-associated infection data.?

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.

Most Popular

Related Articles