Developing a Registry of Healthcare-Associated Infections at Intensive Care Units in West China: Study Rationale and Patient Characteristics

Purpose: Limited evidence is available to support the management of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in intensive care units (ICUs). Establishing a registry with complete and accurate information is urgently needed. The West China Hospital system has the most complete and largest data system for HAI in the ICU setting in China. By linking a multidimensional database, we developed a registry of HAI in ICU. Methods: The ICU-HAI registry was established using a multi-source database that included electronic medical record (EMR), ICU system and ICU-HAI system in the West China Hospital healthcare system. Patients who were admitted to ICUs between 1 April 2015 and 30 March 2018 were included and data were extracted based on pre-designed, standardized data forms. We achieved the linkage of the three databases using a unique patient identification code, and cleaned the data based on standardized variable dictionaries and cleaning rules. We evaluated the quality of the registry through data verification and assessment of the quality of key variables. Results: In total, 23, 062 patients were included. The ICU mortality and hospital mortality were 5.4% and 5.5% respectively. A total of 855 patients developed ICU-HAIs, 1540 patients developed ventilator-associated events (VAE), and 171 patients developed possible ventilator-associated pneumonia (PVAP). Quality assessment showed that the accuracy of data extraction and linkage was 100%. Furthermore, 98% of all patients had at least one important laboratory tests performed, and the median number of tests performed was 4 to 5 per admission. Conclusion: A unique registry for HAIs in the ICU setting was successfully established, which contains complete and accurate information for all patients in the ICU. The registry, linked from multiple data sources, provides unique research insights into the management of HAIs in the ICU setting in China.