Post-discharge follow-up of hospital-associated infections in paediatric patients with conventional questionnaires and electronic surveillance

Abstract

Background: Viral infections are common causes of hospital-associated infections (HAIs) in paediatric patients, with most of these infections only becoming evident after discharge.

Aim: To analyse the benefits and costs of conventional and electronic surveillance methods for conducting HAI follow-ups.

Methods: A comparison was made between response rate, time required per patient and costs to the healthcare system of conventional and electronic surveillance methods (sms, e-mail, telephone call).

Findings: Altogether 1927 patients participated in the conventional followed up in 2001-2003, of whom 1175 (61%) returned the questionnaire; during the electronic surveillance period in 2005-2007, 2309 patients were followed-up in hospital, and 1940 of them (84%) returned the post-discharge information to us. The time needed by HCWs was 33 min per patient in the conventional follow-up and 13 min in the electronic follow-up, the total costs per patient being €15.07 and €13.61 respectively. A decrease of 17.1% in annual expenses was achieved with the electronic follow-up. The incidence of HAI was 8.4% in the conventional period and 12.2% in the electronic surveillance period, most cases becoming symptomatic after hospitalization.

Conclusion: Electronic data collection was a convenient way of implementing a continuous HAI follow-up, achieving both a higher participation rate and lower costs.