To keep patients safe and save hospital costs, the St. Joseph's/Candler Health System in Savannah, Ga., is rolling out Web-based technology to track infections.
The technology, called SafetySurveillor, was developed by the Premier healthcare alliance. According to officials of the San Diego-based alliance, more than 270 hospitals employ SafetySurveillor to help prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
The goal is to keep patients safe, while also reducing hospital costs.
"SafetySurveillor is a useful tool for our infection control practitioners," said Sherry Danello, chief nursing officer at St. Joseph's. "It should open up many opportunities for us in the area of infection surveillance, treatment and prevention, as well as more appropriate and cost-effective use of antimicrobials."
SafetySurveillor is part of the "QUEST: High Performing Hospitals" collaborative, a voluntary, three-year project involving nearly 200 not-for-profit hospitals across 31 states. Premier recently expanded participation in QUEST, adding more than 30 additional hospitals, including St. Joseph's.
"Hospitals rely on SafetySurveillor to effectively manage infection control surveillance, prevention and reporting efforts that improve efficiency, reduce infections and automate surveillance efforts," said Premier's Scott D. Pope, SafetySurveillor national director. "Its infection control and pharmacy modules enable pharmacists to obtain precise alerts and reports on specified usage of selected antibiotics to help improve outcomes, reducing patient length of stay and associated costs."
Premier executives say SafetySurveillor also helps hospitals meet state-mandated public reporting of certain HAIs, including screening for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and clostridium difficile, some of the most common and harmful infections found in hospitals. With the automated system, hospitals can detect HAIs, alert staff and facilitate timely intervention to reduce and prevent infections.
Premier is one of the HAI surveillance system software vendors participating in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project to develop a standards-based solution for transmission of HAI data from hospitals to the agency's National Healthcare Safety network.
SafetySurveillor is a part of Premier's SafetyConnect program, a product and service offering aimed at addressing the safety and infection-related challenges facing healthcare organizations.