Web-based Infection Control Tool Helps Protect Patients

By Suzi Birz, principal, HiQ Analytics, LLC

In hospitals alone, health-care associated infections (HAIs) account for an estimated 2 million infections, 90,000 deaths and $4.5 billion in excess health care costs annually. In an effort to lower these statistics, SafetySurveillor™, a new Web-based solution from Premier, Inc., provides electronic surveillance to infection control professionals and clinical pharmacists.
“Infection prevention professionals use SafetySurveillor to quickly detect and facilitate timely interventions with actionable alerts, analysis and reports through automatic data collection and analytical routines that integrate patient, laboratory, surgery and pharmacy data,” said Angela Bivens, MSN, a senior clinical consultant with Premier.
“The interventions from the alerts affect not only patient safety, but the safety of hospital staff and visitors,” added Burns. “Additionally, the alerts and ad hoc reporting allow rapid detection of clusters and outbreaks.”
“Being open to this new technology allows infection control practitioners and clinical pharmacists do their job better by taking advantage of the timeliness and organization of the alerts,” noted Burns.

Full Article: http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/devices-and-technology.aspx?ID=18768&Tab=1