What is VICNISS?

The VICNISS Hospital Acquired Infection Surveillance System for larger hospitals is based on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program called the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) system, which was established in 1970. NNIS Surveillance activities, designed for hospitals with more than 100 beds, are targeted to those patients at highest risk of hospital acquired infections — namely, patients after surgery and patients in adult and neonatal intensive care units.

The NNIS system has been widely used and is generally considered to be the most developed and validated hospital infection surveillance system worldwide. A cornerstone of the system is the use of clinically validated risk adjustment methods, and there is a high level of acceptance by clinicians in the US and other developed countries. Most importantly, the NNIS system has been proven to reduce hospital acquired infections.

For more information, please see "Why is Hospital Surveillance Important".

The VICNISS Coordinating Centre collects and analyses data from individual hospitals, and reports quarterly to participants and the Department of Human Services on aggregate, risk adjusted, procedure-specific infection rates. This information contributes to the development of accurate and reliable benchmarks against which hospitals and health services can assess their performance.

For further information on infection rates, the VICNISS Coordinating Centre publishes an Annual Report.

The Centre is staffed by a multidisciplinary team comprising infection control nurses, epidemiologists, infectious diseases physicians, an information technology officer and an education officer. See Staff Details for further information.