Using hospital network-based surveillance for antimicrobial resistance as a more robust alternative to self-reporting.

ABSTRACT: Hospital performance is often measured using self-reported statistics, such as the incidence of hospital-transmitted micro-organisms or those exhibiting antimicrobial resistance (AMR), encouraging hospitals with high levels to improve their performance. However, hospitals that increase screening efforts will appear to have a higher incidence and perform poorly, undermining comparison between hospitals and disincentivising testing, thus hampering infection control. We propose a surveillance system in which hospitals test patients previously discharged from other hospitals and report observed cases. Using English National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Episode Statistics data, we analysed patient movements across England and assessed the number of hospitals required to participate in such a r

SUBMITTER: Donker T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6657867 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature