Development of a hospital-acquired infection surveillance information system by using service-oriented architecture technology

The guidelines for hospital-acquired infections (HAI) published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is most comprehensive and detailed. However, it requires a large amount of resources to implement the guidelines in hospital settings, particularly for data collection and analysis. HAI surveillance is time-consuming and costly, and hence HAI surveillance in many hospitals couldn't regularly be performed. Nowadays, most hospitals in Taiwan have adopted electronic medical record systems to support day-to-day clinical practice. As the result of popularity of EMRs, the daily HAI surveillance tasks can be eased and automated. According to that, we have established a HAI surveillance information system (HASIS) based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) technology for integration of surveillance data, distributed in different hospital information systems. We also have developed the detection algorithms for detection suspicious cases. Thus, the HASIS can provide both abstract and complete electronic surveillance information, and detect suspected infection cases. Consequently, it can support infection control professionals' daily surveillance tasks more responsively and efficiently.