Prospective evaluation of a hospital epidemiologist's activities at a European tertiary-care medical center

OBJECTIVE: Assessment of the distribution of tasks and consultations provid ed by the hospital epidemiologist (HE) at University Hospital of Zurich (UH Z). DESIGN: Prospective collection of data on hospital epidemiology consultatio ns over a 3-year period (1995-1997). Time spent per consultation and activi ties of infection control practitioners were not recorded. SETTING: A 1,040-bed tertiary-care university hospital in Zurich, Switzerla nd. RESULTS: Between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 1997, the HE received 1, 660 requests for consultation. Advice or action was sought in the following areas: epidemiology (27.5% of requests); quality assurance, including anti biotic utilization and technology assessment (24.8%); infection control and practice guidelines (22.5%); disinfection and sterilization (11.6%); clini cal infectious diseases (13.4%). During 1997, 35% of epidemiology consults were related to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and 5.8% to tub erculosis. Public or private hospitals not affiliated with UHZ requested 40 % of all consults. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that HEs are involved in many different activ ities. Only 27.5% of hospital epidemiology consultations were directly rela ted to issues of epidemiology. Practical knowledge of the methodologies for continuous quality improvement and assessment of various new technologies is important for HEs. The results of this study may be useful in discussion s between HEs and administrators about allocation of resources or issues of reimbursement (Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1999;20:604-606).