Assessment of the BD EpiCenterTM system for epidemiology and surveillance of hospital acquired infections, exploiting the bacteriology laboratory database

Abstract

Since the ’70 the exploitation of the clinical bacteriology laboratory databases has been recommended for the surveillance of hospital acquired infections. The EpiCenterTM system that is currently used in our laboratory is very versatile and of great usefulness, despite it requires some improvements in order to enhance the graphic format by which results are reported.The four reports that have been set up represent a good strategic choice for tackling with epidemiologic requests, in particular routine issues raised by clinicians. The reports “Sentinel organisms” and “Recurrence of phenotypes” are intended for real time detection of “alert events”, which can prospect the occurrence of an epidemic case of hospital acquired infections. The report “Endemic events’ monitoring” builds up a follow up trend of endemic events that are already the object of control actions. A retrospective epidemiologic report of isolated organisms can be produced by the “Historical report”. The employment of epidemiology and surveillance reports, together with standard lab procedures, could produce a tremendous amount of data to use in the surveillance and control of hospital acquired infections. Nevertheless, lack of awareness and of collaboration with the laboratory, shown in some cases by the main actors of the surveillance and control of hospital acquired infections, could nullify all of the efforts made by the laboratory.