AUTOMATED ENTRY OF HOSPITAL INFECTION SURVEILLANCE DATA

OBJECTIVE: To assess the accuracy of an automated data entry system em ploying optical scanning technology and to provide an analysis of its costs as compared to manual data entry. DESIGN: The accuracy and cost of automated data entry of 100 surgical-wound infection surveillance q uestionnaires was compared to manual entry. SETTING: The Surgical Dire ctorate, The Royal Hospitals, Belfast, Northern Ireland. RESULTS: The use of optical scanning technology greatly improved the speed and accu racy of data entry. The time spent by the keyboard operator on data en try was reduced substantially. For each surgical-wound infection quest ionnaire automatically processed, there was a saving in clerical time equivalent to $0.63. The automated data entry process resulted in a 22 -fold productivity increase compared to manual data entry with validat ion. After validation, an error rate of <0.2 errors per 1,000 response s was detected in automatically entered data compared to a rate of 12. 4 errors per 1,000 responses for manually entered data. The automated system, including validation, provided a sevenfold productivity increa se compared to ''quick-and-dirty'' manual data entry without validatio n. CONCLUSION: Hospital information technology systems may achieve tot al integration of data management, but realistically this would appear to be very much in the future. Until then, in view of the accuracy an d substantial savings in time and money, we recommend the use of autom ated data entry technology. This system would be especially useful whe re data are transported from outlying hospitals to a central receiving center for collation and analysis(Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1997; 18:486-491).