Surveillance of hospital acquired infections: Presentation of a computerised system

Day by day surveillance of hospital acquired infections is a time-consuming activity. Healthcare professionals need powerful computer tools to manage and analyse these data. Such a program must include all the functions neede d to manage communication with other programs in order to minimise data ent ry. Coherence checks are then used to validate data. Automatic production o f reports, graphics or tables enables users to quickly obtain timely and re presentative documents regarding the evolution of specific indicators. The local person in charge for the system must be able to easily modify many pa rts of the program (data entry screens, calculations, checks, etc.) without any direct intervention from a computer specialist. Using this description , we have created a specific software for the management of this informatio n named NosoCom. The program has been used for four years in France and Bel gium. An English release is now available.