The purpose of this study was to evaluate information visualization of publicly-reported central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) outcome data for decision making by diverse target audiences - health care consumers and practitioners. We describe the challenges in publicly reporting of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) data and the interpretation of an evaluation metric. Several options for visualization of CLABSI data were designed and evaluated employing exploratory working group, two confirmatory focus groups' observations, and experts' committee validation of the final designs. Survey-data collection and evaluation criteria results, collected from the two focus groups, are presented and are used to develop the final recommendations for how to visualize publicly-reported CLABSI data from Maryland acute care hospitals. Both health care consumer and practitioner's perspectives are highlighted and categorized based on the visualizations' dimensions framework. Finally, a recommended format for visualizing CLABSI outcome data based on the evaluation study is summarized.
Keywords: Blood-Borne Pathogens; Cross Infection; Infection Control; Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient; Information Graphics; Information Visualization; MeSH Headings: Catheter-Related Infections; Public Health Informatics; Public Health Practice; Sense Making; Usability of Health Information; Visual Communication.