Summary
Objectives:
The control of infections and their resistance to antibiotics in hospitals is a matter
of vital importance in the follow-up of transplant patients. This project has the
purpose of translating microbiological reports from an obsolete file structure to
a system which could guarantee a more correct and quick transmission of data, a system
of storage which reduces the possibility of errors, a smoother manipulation, consultation
and updating of data and, at least, a simple way to compute the cost of analysis,
based on the costs determined by the national’s DRG.
Methods:
The proposed solution is a semiautomatic interface which translates these data into
a relational database on a daily basis, interprets the requests coming from external
centers and produces reports. The prospective to use this tool for several centers
indicates to us the need to choose an HL7 output for the interface.
Results:
A prototype version of this program was installed in February 2004. In this period,
routine work has been recorded with an average of 6.5 samples per day, with a maximum
of 23 samples. Moreover, historical data from 1998 has been translated. The main source
of errors in these data was due to patient identification problems with an average
occurrence of 4.06% in the virology section and of 4.16% in the microbiological division.
Conclusions:
A complete reorganization of the system would be desirable but at the moment it is
not realistic because of obvious budget problems. The proposed approach, mainly the
HL7 interface, seems to be a reasonable compromise.
Keywords
Microbiological data sharing - transplant patient treatment - medical data standardization
