NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS - CONTINUOUS DETECTION OF EPIDEMICS AND ALARM BY COMPUTER NETWORK

The Central Laboratory of Bacteriology in association with the Department of Medical Information has developped a software to monitor the dissemination of hospital bacteria in clinical departments. A weekly check of the number of patients infected by one or several types of these bacteria raises an alarm signal whenever frequency of one of these types of bacteria seems abnormally high in one of the clinical departments. A computer network currently allows results of biological tests to be transfered in real time. The same network has been used for the diffusion of frequency or identity of patients, room numbers and alarms. Thus, the bacterial cartography of his department is at the clinician's permanent disposal.