Effort to Study Central-Line Infection

Premier Inc., a provider alliance, quality improvement and group purchasing organization, will collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop technologies for predicting central-line associated bloodstream infections.

These infections are associated with the use of catheters in large veins. Under the initiative, Premier and the CDC will analyze specific traits of positive blood cultures across a subset of Premier's 2,300 member hospitals to develop an automated electronic surveillance tool to predict the presence of such infections. Researchers at Stroger (Cook County) Hospital in Chicago will evaluate the effectiveness of the tool in a real-world setting.

The project includes automation of the reporting of central-line associated bloodstream infections to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network. The goal is to have a more standardized way of infection detection and reporting using data from within existing health information systems. Data will come from Premier's Perspectives database, its SafetySurveillor infection control and surveillance software, and Health and Human Services information systems.

The project is expected to take about two years and Premier will integrate the resulting surveillance tool into SafetySurveillor. The tool also will be available for integration into other infection control applications.

The initiative follows a pilot program of the CDC's Preventive Epicenter Program to identify and evaluate effective health care-associated infection controls. More information is available at cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/epicenter.html and premierinc.com.

--Joseph Goedert