The Sentinel Event Tracking Network(SETNET)System

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hospital-acquired infections, antimicrobial use, and antimicrobial resistance are complex and inter-related problems, responsible for high health and financial costs, that every hospital faces. Cereplex, Inc. is developing its internet-based Sentinel Event Tracking Network (SETNET) application to fulfill hospitals' unmet needs in this area. In Phase 1 SETNET utilized hospital-level patient and microbiology data to provide alerts and reports for use by hospital epidemiologists and Infection Control Professionals to address and reduce patient morbidity and mortality. Three specific aims are proposed for Phase 2: 1) Further refinement and evaluation of SETNET's ability to identify episodes of nosocomial transmission within hospitals, and a determination of SETNET's ability to reduce nosocomial infections; 2) Integration of antimicrobial drug usage analyses, feedback, and reports to support reducing medical errors, health-care costs, and the development of drug-resistant microorganisms; and, 3) Increasing the capability to identify potential bioterrorism incidents, including building data views for public health departments, developing syndromic surveillance methods, and automating the notification of health departments of reportable diseases from participating institutions. This project will require two years, and will be pilot tested at three large hospitals. Expected outcomes include refinement and demonstration of the cluster detection capacity of SETNET, development of methods to manage the pharmacy data stream, development of the antimicrobial usage/resistance alerts and reports, tools for disease reporting and detecting bioterrorist threats, and evaluation of SETNET effectiveness for each specific aim.