Microprocessors for auditing the surveillance activity of the Infection Control Nurse

An important part of the Infection Control Nurse's activity in the UK is the laboratory-based surveillance of patients with infections that are known to be transmissible, i.e. of 'alert' organisms. We have replaced a manual 'T-card' system in which relevant patient information, microbiology and nursing notes are held on all patients yielding 'alert' organisms. The programme is menu driven, requires minimal coding and runs on a microprocessor with a hard disc. The programme enables surveillance patient information to be entered, edited, archived and recorded. Instant retrieval on screen or hard copy includes summarized or full displays of all patients on all wards, sorted by wards, organism, date or risk category. Archived data may be retrieved within minutes and this avoids having to interrogate the whole laboratory database overnight. To illustrate an additional use of the data stored, we analysed the surveillance activities of the Control of Infection Nurse for one year. Of 203 laboratory diagnoses requiring patient surveillance, 30% were viral infections, of which more than two-thirds were caused by hepatitis B virus; of the 142 bacterial isolates, 27% were multiply antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, 25% Pseudomonas spp, 12% Salmonella spp., 9% methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 7% Group A streptococci and 8% meningococci. These isolates resulted in only four outbreaks involving nine patients or staff. This information has proved useful for auditing the nurse's activity and provides evidence for the cost-effectiveness of infection control.