Investigating the Effect of Hospital Infection Control Informatization on Optimizing Microbiological Specimen...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Clinical Informatics
• Antimicrobial Stewardship

Background:

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis driven by inappropriate antibiotic use.
• Optimizing preantibiotic microbiological specimen submission is crucial for effective antimicrobial stewardship (AMS).
• Current workflows face challenges like interruptions, technology barriers, and behavioral factors, leading to suboptimal compliance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically identify workflow risks in preantibiotic specimen submission using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
• To design, implement, and evaluate informatization-enabled interventions to improve specimen submission.
• To leverage FMEA and hospital informatization for enhanced AMS practices.

Main Methods:

• A Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was conducted at a tertiary hospital.
• A multidisciplinary team identified failure modes across health information systems, personnel, administration, and external support.
• Interventions included barcode scanning, AI-driven clinical decision support, EHR-integrated training, and automated dashboards, with pre- and postintervention data analyzed.

Main Results:

• Top failure modes identified included barcode scanning issues, inadequate clinical decision support, and insufficient clinician awareness.
• Postintervention, significant upward trends in overall specimen submission rates were observed (P<.001).
• Improvements were also noted for restricted-use (P<.001) and special-use antibiotics (P<.001).

Conclusions:

• FMEA combined with hospital informatization effectively optimized specimen submission workflows.
• Real-time decision support, standardized processes, and interdisciplinary collaboration significantly improved compliance.
• This integrated approach offers a model for data-driven AMS enhancement and warrants further investigation into long-term impacts.