Nascent regional system for alerting infection preventionists about patients with multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria: implementation and initial results.

Objective: To build and to begin evaluating a regional automated system to notify infection preventionists (IPs) when a patient with a history of gram-negative rod multidrug-resistant organism (GNRMDRO) is admitted to an emergency department (ED) or inpatient setting.

Design: Observational, retrospective study.

Setting: Twenty-seven hospitals, mostly in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, in a health information exchange (HIE).

A regional informatics platform for coordinated antibiotic-resistant infection tracking, alerting, and prevention.

Background: We developed and assessed the impact of a patient registry and electronic admission notification system relating to regional antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on regional AMR infection rates over time. We conducted an observational cohort study of all patients identified as infected or colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and/or vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) on at least 1 occasion by any of 5 healthcare systems between 2003 and 2010. The 5 healthcare systems included 17 hospitals and associated clinics in the Indianapolis, Indiana, region.

An operational citywide electronic infection control network: results from the first year.

The prevalence of drug resistant bacteria such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to increase nationwide. Infection control is a regional problem, particularly in urban settings, requiring a coordinated effort. To enable coordinated infection control efforts, we created a citywide electronic notification system to prospectively track and share information regarding all known patients with MRSA.

Use of a regional health information exchange to detect crossover of patients with MRSA between urban hospitals.

Background: A significant portion of patients already known to be colonized or infected with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may not be identified at admission by neighboring hospitals.

Methods: We utilized data from a Regional Health Information Exchange to assess the frequency that patients known to have MRSA at one healthcare system are admitted to a neighboring healthcare system unaware of their MRSA status. We conducted a retrospective, registry trial from January 1999 through January 2006 involving three healthcare systems in central Indianapolis, representing six hospitals.

Connecting the dots: creation of an electronic regional infection control network.

The prevalence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) continues to increase dramatically worldwide. Successful programs to reduce infection rates of resistant organisms require regional or national compliance with strict infection control measures and feedback on implementation and reduced rates. We partnered with local infection control professionals (ICPs) and leveraged our existing electronic network to create a comprehensive city-wide network to track and uniformly respond to patients admitted with a history of MRSA or VRE.

A modern optical character recognition system in a real world clinical setting: some accuracy and feasibility observations.

Advances in optical character recognition (OCR) software and computer hardware have stimulated a reevaluation of the technology and its ability to capture structured clinical data from preexisting paper forms. In our pilot evaluation, we measured the accuracy and feasibility of capturing vitals data from a pediatric encounter form that has been in use for over twenty years. We found that the software had a digit recognition rate of 92.