Development, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized pediatric infection surveillance system

Update Item Information
Title Development, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized pediatric infection surveillance system
Publication Type dissertation
School or College School of Medicine
Department Biomedical Informatics
Author Rocha, Beatriz Helena de Souza Campos
Date 1997-03
Description This project had two main objectives. The first objective was to determine if a computerized expert system could improve the detection of infections in hospitalized pediatric patients, and consequently help with the surveillance of hospital-acquired infections. The second objective was to analyze if computer-generated alerts and reminders about infections could influence clinicians (staff physicians, physicians' assistants, and nurse practitioners) practicing patterns. To accomplish these objectives, a computerized expert system (denominated COMPISS) using boolean rules was developed and validated in a retrospective study. During the retrospective study, newborn patient data for a two-year period from the LDS Hospital database were processed to validate COMPISS. During the retrospective validation COMPISS had a sensitivity of 84.5% and specificity of 92.8%. After the validation study, COMPISS was evaluated in two prospective studies. In the first prospective study, COMPISS was implemented into Primary Children's Medical Center (PCMC) Infection Control Program. COMPISS results were compared to the results produced by the manual surveillance done by an Infection Control Coordinator (ICC). COMPISS had a sensitivity of 100.0% for bloodstream infections and 57.1% for surgical wound infections. The ICC manual surveillance had a sensitivity of 42.6% for bloodstream infections and 47.6% for surgical wound infections. The first experiment demonstrated that COMPISS could help with the surveillance of the two studied infections and could also reduce the time required for the detection of these infections. In the second prospective study, the conclusions produced by COMPISS were presented directly to the attending clinicians in some units at PCMC. Clinician interventions were compared before and after the implementation of COMPISS. The results obtained in the second experiment failed to demonstrate a statistical difference between the clinicians' practice patterns before and after COMPISS implementation. The findings suggest that a larger sample size was required to demonstrate the small effect of the reminders. The clinicians and nurses' opinion about COMPISS were assessed through a paper questionnaire following of the second experiment. The questionnaire results demonstrated that the respondents appreciated COMPISS alerts and reminders and agreed that they should be continued and implemented in other units of the hospital.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Software; Infant; Child
Subject MESH Medical Informatics; Cross Infection; Computers
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name PhD
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Development, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized pediatric infection surveillance system". Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library. Print version of "Development, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized pediatric infection surveillance system". available at J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collection. R117.5 1997 .R63.
Rights Management © Beatriz Helena de Souza Campos Rocha.
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 4,184,894 bytes
Identifier undthes,4465
Source Original: University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library (no longer available).
Funding/Fellowship National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Secretary for Science and Technology, Brazil, Scholarship.
Master File Extent 4,184,942 bytes
ARK ark:/87278/s60c4xnh
Setname ir_etd
ID 191946
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s60c4xnh
Back to Search Results