Comparison of effectiveness and required time of two surveillance methods in intensive care patients

The intensive care unit (ICU) standardized protocol of the NNIS (National N osocomial Infections Surveillance) system is a surveillance method of hospi tal acquired infections (HAI), which provides device-associated infection r ates. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and the require d time for data collection and analysis of a selective surveillance method (SSM) derived from the NNIS I:CU surveillance protocol, and to compare its data with that of a reference surveillance method (RSM). The sensitivity, s pecificity and the positive predictive value (PPV) of the RSM were 87.5, 10 0 and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and the PPV of the S SM were 59.4 97.6 and 79.2%, respectively. Considering device-related infec tions only (ventilator-related pneumonia, catheter-related urinary tract in fections, central line-related sepsis), the sensitivities of the RSM and th e SSM were 80.9 and 90.5%, respectively. The SSM required only one third of the time of the RSM (1.1 h and 3.4 h per 10 beds per week with the SSM and the RSM, respectively). We conclude that the SSM has a very high sensitivi ty for detecting device associated infections, but is not sensitive enough for surveying all types of HAI.