Abstract
The Evaluation of Processes and Indicators in Infection Control (EPIC) study assesses the relationship between hospital care and rates of central venous catheter-associated primary bacteremia in 54 intensive-care units (ICUs) in the United States and 14 other countries. Using ICU rather than the patient as the primary unit of statistical analysis permits evaluation of factors that vary at the ICU level. The design of EPIC can serve as a template for studies investigating the relationship between process and event rates across health-care institutions.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (42.1 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Emori T. G., Culver D. H., Horan T. C., Jarvis W. R., White J. W., Olson D. R., Banerjee S., Edwards J. R., Martone W. J., Gaynes R. P. National nosocomial infections surveillance system (NNIS): description of surveillance methods. Am J Infect Control. 1991 Feb;19(1):19–35. doi: 10.1016/0196-6553(91)90157-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Iezzoni L. I., Ash A. S., Shwartz M., Daley J., Hughes J. S., Mackiernan Y. D. Judging hospitals by severity-adjusted mortality rates: the influence of the severity-adjustment method. Am J Public Health. 1996 Oct;86(10):1379–1387. doi: 10.2105/ajph.86.10.1379. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kritchevsky S. B., Braun B. I., Gross P. A., Newcomb C. S., Kelleher C. A., Simmons B. P. Definition and adjustment of Cesarean section rates and assessments of hospital performance. Int J Qual Health Care. 1999 Aug;11(4):283–291. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/11.4.283. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kritchevsky S. B., Simmons B. P., Braun B. I. The Project to Monitor Indicators: a collaborative effort between the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1995 Jan;16(1):33–35. doi: 10.1086/647000. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mermel L. A. Prevention of intravascular catheter-related infections. Ann Intern Med. 2000 Mar 7;132(5):391–402. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-132-5-200003070-00009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pearson M. L. Guideline for prevention of intravascular device-related infections. Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1996 Jul;17(7):438–473. doi: 10.1086/647338. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Romano P. S., Mark D. H. Bias in the coding of hospital discharge data and its implications for quality assessment. Med Care. 1994 Jan;32(1):81–90. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199401000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]