Application of a microcomputer-based system in the analysis of infection data at the emergency units of a large hospital

Abstract

After three years of retrospective study in four emergency units from a large hospital (2000 beds) and analysis of 6283 positive cultures, a microcomputer database system was built to store information concerning nosocomial infections in order to help the clinical staff from those units to study the incidence of 20 bacterial species and their sensitivity pattern evolutions for 27 antibiotics (from samples in 15 different collecting sites). This system was developed as an alternative to the hospital mainframe computer microbiological reports. It put emphasis on graphical outputs instead of the coded tables generated by the bigger system. This orientation and the possibility of sectorial infection data analysis were responsible for the general acceptance of the microcomputer-based system by the clinical staff. As the first practical results, the system was able to detect a particular increase in the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus in surgical emergency units (up to 21.6% in 1982) as well as the dissemination of the antimicrobial resistance of S. aureus and Klebsiella pneumonaiae from the surgical units to the clinical ones. The time evolution behaviour of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and other non-fermentative Gram negative bacilli was also studied to complete the analysis of the most pathogenic bacterial species found in our emergency units.