Infection control and hospital epidemiology : the official journal of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jun 2012
Multicenter StudyEfficiency of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, billing code searches to identify emergency department visits for blood or body fluid exposures through a statewide multicenter database.
Blood and body fluid exposures are frequently evaluated in emergency departments (EDs). However, efficient and effective methods for estimating their incidence are not yet established. ⋯ Although an accurate subset of ICD-9 codes could be identified, variations across hospitals related to hospital coding style, efficiency, and accuracy greatly affected estimates of the number of ED visits for blood or body fluid exposure.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jun 2012
A new metric of antibiotic class resistance in gram-negative bacilli isolated from hospitalized children.
The purpose of this study was to describe patterns of infection or colonization with antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacilli (GNB) in hospitalized children utilizing an electronic health record. ⋯ An electronic health record can be used to track antibiotic class resistance in GNB isolated from hospitalized children over multiple cultures and hospitalizations.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jun 2012
Comparative StudyThe utility of acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II scores for prediction of mortality among intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.
Bloodstream infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been associated with significant risk of in-hospital mortality. The acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II score was developed and validated for use among intensive care unit (ICU) patients, but its utility among non-ICU patients is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of APACHE II to predict death at multiple time points among ICU and non-ICU patients with MRSA bacteremia. ⋯ The APACHE II score may be a valid tool to control for confounding or for the prediction of death among ICU and non-ICU patients with MRSA bacteremia.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jun 2012
Use of administrative data in efficient auditing of hospital-acquired surgical site infections, New York State 2009-2010.
To efficiently validate the accuracy of surgical site infection (SSI) data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) by New York State (NYS) hospitals. ⋯ Audits are vital for ensuring the accuracy of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) data so that hospital HAI rates can be fairly compared. Use of administrative data increased the efficiency of identifying problems in hospitals' SSI surveillance that caused SSIs to be unreported and caused errors in denominator data.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Jun 2012
Variability in mean duration of mechanical ventilation among community hospitals.
We explored intensive care units' mean ventilator-days per patient as a possible objective alternative to ventilator-associated pneumonia rates for assessing quality of care for ventilated patients. Mean ventilator-days per patient varied 4-fold within a network of community hospitals despite adjusting for multiple patient and hospital factors. Further assessment of this metric is warranted.