Cregan, Jack;
Nsonwu, Olisaeloka;
Chudasama, Dimple;
Hopkins, Susan;
Muller-Pebody, Berit;
Hope, Russell;
Brown, Colin;
... Walker, A Sarah; + view all
(2025)
The potential of a centrally-implemented system for national surveillance of bloodstream infections in England, compared to current local surveillance, 2023-2024.
Journal of Hospital Infection
10.1016/j.jhin.2025.11.041.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mandatory reporting of bacteraemias in England is currently conducted locally by acute hospital groups; the associated manual data retrieval and entry can be a large burden on healthcare staff. Secondary use of routinely-collected data could provide an alternative, but the operational viability of this approach is unproven. METHODS: To assess the desirability of replacing the current local manual method of surveillance with a centrally-implemented automated alternative, we compared agreement between individual bacteraemia cases submitted by acute hospital groups (locally-implemented surveillance) and those identified by linking routinely-collected laboratory and hospital encounter records (centrally-implemented surveillance) for bacteraemias under mandatory surveillance in England from April 2023-March 2024. We considered agreement in case identification, and completeness and agreement in 17 data-fields covering patient identifiers, location, admission characteristics and acquisition source. RESULTS: 71556/73807 (97.0%) locally-identified bacteraemias were matched vs 71556/72883 (98.2%) centrally-identified. Discrepancies were predominantly restricted to specific hospital groups. Only 1941/71556 (2.7%) matched bacteraemias had >1 day between index specimen dates; most discrepancies came from one laboratory. 97.9% centrally-identified bacteraemias linked to a hospital encounter. Centrally-generated metadata-fields were as or more complete than locally-reported fields, with much higher completeness for acquisition source fields. Overall agreement was high, but varied by type of data-field (some being harder to identify from electronic sources) and more markedly across Reporting Organisations. CONCLUSION: Provided data feeds and quality are monitored continuously, centrally-implemented surveillance could be feasible for bacteraemias in England. This could provide greater breadth and depth of intelligence to drive action to reduce healthcare-associated infections, while reducing burden on local hospital groups.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The potential of a centrally-implemented system for national surveillance of bloodstream infections in England, compared to current local surveillance, 2023-2024 |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jhin.2025.11.041 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2025.11.041 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Under a Creative Commons license Open access https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Healthcare-associated infection, automation, data collection, surveillance |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology > MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10218973 |
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