Network to create a vision of patient, worker safety
BSIs tracked, noninfectious outcomes to follow
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) planned National Healthcare Safety Network will include the following general outline and three specific components for data tracking and analysis.
Vision. Create a web-based knowledge system for accumulating, exchanging, and integrating relevant information and resources among private and public stakeholders that support local efforts to protect patients and promote health care safety. Users are providers of care, hospitals, clinics and outpatient settings, long-term care facilities, health plans, and consumers of care.
Goals. Improve patient and health care worker safety by providing protocols for monitoring adverse events associated with devices, procedures, and medications. Provide feedback of comparative data for performance improvement. Provide a way to access prevention tools, lessons learned, and best practices.
Premises. Share data in a timely manner while maintaining data security, integrity, and confidentiality. Confidentially and security exist between the user and the public health agencies to which they are reporting and also between users. Minimize user burden by streamlining data-reporting protocols. Increase the capacity for including data from existing electronic sources. Build ways for users to access their laboratory information systems, admission, discharge, transfer system, operating room, pharmacy, and clinical data system records. All health care delivery systems are allowed to participate.
Patient safety. This component will be based on the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system and the Dialysis Surveillance Network. It will include reporting and analysis of central bloodstream infections in any patient population; hospitalization or an IV antimicrobial start in a chronic dialysis outpatient; ventilator-associated pneumonias; and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Noninfectious adverse outcomes also may be added. The patient safety component also will include reporting and analysis of post-procedure associated pneumonia in both inpatients and outpatients; and surgical-site infections after operations. Antimicrobial use and resistance will be tracked, and this aspect may be expanded to include medication errors.
Health care worker safety. The health care worker safety component will be based on the CDC’s National Surveillance System for Health Care Workers (NaSH) system. This aspect of the network calls for reporting and analyzing worker exposures, including administration of post-exposure prophylaxis after HIV bloodborne exposures. It also will include TB exposure data, vaccine history, and exposures to vaccine-preventable diseases.
Research and development. As the data are reported to CDC, the agency will conduct studies and do demonstration projects with partners. The data will also be published in aggregate form.
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