Rhode Island Hospital has chosen software by TheraDoc Inc., a medical informatics company, to enhance its in-house infection control system by automating surveillance of patient data, streamlining data collection and bringing critical information to clinicians’ attention.
The software, TheraDoc said in a news release, will help the hospital’s infection control team “make better-informed, timely decisions” to reduce hospital-acquired infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 2 million people – 5 percent to 10 percent of all hospital patients – contract infections each year, ranging from relatively minor urinary tract or surgical site infections, to pneumonia and severe blood infections. About 88,000 people die as a result.
Infection rates for Rhode Island’s hospitals are not known, but all the institutions have in-house infection surveillance systems. A bill sponsored by state Sen. John F. McBurney III (D-Pawtucket), based on a Consumers Union model law, would require infection data to be reported periodically by the state Department of Health.
Studies have shown that hospitals’ efforts to control infections can make a huge difference. A recent Johns Hopkins University study, for example, showed that simple interventions can nearly eliminate deaths from catheter-related bloodstream infections, which now kill as many as 28,000 patients each year.
“The field of infectious diseases is complex; software such as TheraDoc’s can expedite the daily work of the infection control team so that they can have a bigger impact on saving patients’ lives,” said Leonard. A. Mermel, medical director of Rhode Island Hospital’s department of infection control, in a news release.
“When clinicians harness the software’s power to collect patient data,” Mermel added, “they will dramatically reduce the grind of data collection and make better use of their time.”
Julie Jefferson, the hospital’s director of epidemiology and infection control, estimated that infection-control professionals spend two to four hours a day manually gathering the data they need. TheraDoc’s automated processes, she said, will give them “more opportunity to serve, teach and heal.”
TheraDoc allows hospitals to track infection rates and their relative antibiotic resistance levels in real-time and at the point of care. Rhode Island Hospital will be using several parts of the TheraDoc product suite, including Antibiotic Assistant, Infection Control Assistant and Clinical Alerts Assistant. Through integration with the hospital’s information systems, the software will automate surveillance and streamline data collection as well as analyze, interpret and transform clinical data into information that can guide doctors’ actions.
McBurney’s bill has been referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee but has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. State health officials and the Hospital Association of Rhode Island have expressed support for the concept of hospital infection tracking, though they’re trying to build it into the state’s existing hospital quality-control system.
