SORA

Advancing, promoting and sharing knowledge of health through excellence in teaching, clinical practice and research into the prevention and treatment of illness

Laboratory data as a quality indicator of health-care-associated infections in England.

Jeyaratnam, D; Planche, T (2018) Laboratory data as a quality indicator of health-care-associated infections in England. Br J Hosp Med (Lond), 79 (6). pp. 333-340. ISSN 1750-8460 https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2018.79.6.333
SGUL Authors: Planche, Timothy David

[img]
Preview
PDF Accepted Version
Available under License ["licenses_description_publisher" not defined].

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Routine diagnostic laboratory results, e.g. numbers of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemias, have been used as health-care-associated infection quality indicators for decades. The English health-care-associated infection quality indicator system was one of the earliest in the world to mandate the collection and public reporting of such data and has been associated with a reduction of MRSA bacteraemias and Clostridium difficile infections but has shown mixed results for other infections. Diagnostic laboratory data vary greatly between hospitals depending not only on the underlying frequency of the infection of interest, but on the case mix, numbers of samples processed and laboratory factors, which limits benchmarking. Further, over-reliance on laboratory reports has led to unintended negative consequences in England. So, while acknowledging the successes of the English system, the authors believe that it should be appraised in light of the goals of quality of care, patient safety, fairness and providing meaningful data, and alternative healthcare-associated infection quality indicator measurements considered.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in British Journal of Hospital Medicine, copyright © MA Healthcare, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2018.79.6.333
Keywords: General & Internal Medicine, 1103 Clinical Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Infection and Immunity Research Institute (INII)
Journal or Publication Title: Br J Hosp Med (Lond)
ISSN: 1750-8460
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
2 June 2018Published
Publisher License: Publisher's own licence
PubMed ID: 29894240
Web of Science ID: WOS:000434968600026
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/109906
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2018.79.6.333

Actions (login required)

Edit Item Edit Item