Increased Efficiency in Electronic Infection Surveillance Systems Vital to Providers

OREM, UT, June 22, 2011 (Press-News.org) With so much of the current dialogue about Meaningful Use (MU) in the healthcare industry focused on stimulus payments and imminent compliance dates, people often overlook the fact that one of the primary goals of the legislation is to make a positive impact on patient health. The latest KLAS report, "Infection Control 2011: Better Tools + More Data = Less Infection?" examines infection control and surveillance systems available today, as well as a dozen vendors seeking to become more established in the market.

"Surveillance systems serve as an essential tool to arm infection preventionists (IPs) with useful, actionable data early and often," said Steve VanWagenen, KLAS research director and report author. "The IPs take the data to the hospital floor and then help clinicians make necessary changes. If the right changes can be made at the clinician level, infection rates decrease, and so do the costs associated with infections."

Good interfacing was identified by IPs as a key to success, as the effectiveness of infection surveillance systems is tied to the IP's ability to reliably extract data from various data sources, including lab/microbiology, surgery, radiology, pharmacy, and other internal systems.

The respondent pool--comprised of more than 200 providers, including 174 infection preventionists--provided insight on how well their vendors were living up to expectations and how the systems have been impacting their workflow and infection rates/costs. In addition to the three vendors who qualified to be ranked in this report, CareFusion, Hospira (TheraDoc), and Premier, VigiLanz/Quantros and The Advisory Board/Vecna solutions were also highlighted through preliminary provider feedback.

Beyond basic functionality, hospitals looking for a surveillance system are taking into account several important factors: the vendor's service model, any incentives offered (including subsidies or discounts), and reporting capabilities. As Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and state reporting requirements continue to increase, providers are looking for systems that can help ease that burden.

"There is plenty of room for growth in this market," added VanWagenen. "Even with a steady increase in adoption over the past two years, KLAS estimates that only 20 to 25 percent of hospitals currently have a real-time infection surveillance system, which is up from 10 to 15 percent in 2009 but still significantly low overall." CMS's refusal to pay for any treatment associated with hospital-acquired infections, as well as more recent NHSN reporting requirements, only increases providers' desire for an accurate and efficient way to monitor and report on such infections.

For more information about the infection control market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of real-time infection surveillance system vendors, "Infection Control 2011: Better Tools + More Data = Less Infection?" is available online to healthcare providers for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors. For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email marketing@KLASresearch.comor call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch.