eBulletin April/May 2006 Edition 20
In this Edition:
Reminders:
! Type 2 Data Submission:
Quarter 4 Reports were released on Friday, 17th March 2006. The deadline for data to be forwarded to
the VICNISS Coordinating Centre for Quarter 1, 2006 is Sunday, 30th April 2006.
The corresponding report is then due to be posted mid-June 2006.
! Type 1 Data Submission:
Quarter 4 Reports were released on Friday 17th March 2006. The deadline for data to be forwarded to
the VICNISS Coordinating Centre for Quarter 1, 2005 is Friday, 5th May 2006.
The corresponding report is then due to be posted mid-June 2006.
Key Dates: For more information on deadlines and dates, please
click here
(Opens in new window).
Performance Indicators
Several hospitals have raised concerns regarding the 2006 Type 1 Performance Indicators (PIs), particularly
in relation to the PIs that state "data must be collected continuously and submitted to the VICNISS Coordinating
Centre quarterly."
If you are unable to comply with the PI’s due to resources issues or other reasons, this should be
discussed with your Executive Sponsor and Infection Control Committee. Following this, a letter should be
sent to the VCC outlining the reasons why you are unable to comply. This letter needs to be co-signed by
the Infection Control Executive Sponsor. As the VCC are required to indicate to the Department of Human
Services which hospitals have not met the PI’s, we will include the explanation provided in our
quarterly report to DHS.
As always, staff at the VCC are available to discuss any of the above issues with you.
Type 1 De-identified Hospital Data Report
As you may be aware, the new Type 1 De-identified Hospital Data Report is now available for viewing on the
VICNISS website.
To view the report, log in to your hospital page on the VICNISS website www.vicniss.org.au (where quarterly reports are posted) using your three digit
hospital code (username) and your hospital Password. On this page we have posted your hospitals' double letter
code (in red text).
Now click on the new link "Type 1 De-identified Hospital Data Report". This will open up
the new report. The data is prefaced by an explanation on how to interpret the charts in the report.
We strongly encourage you read this section.
A couple of hospitals have reported difficulty in copying and pasting the charts from this report.
This was due to an error on our behalf which has now been corrected. We recommend that the current
Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 be used to open the report. If you don’t have this updated version
of Acrobat Reader it can be downloaded at www.adobe.com. (You may need to contact your IT
department if you are unable to install programs onto your PC). Use the snapshot tool to copy charts
[this is identified by a camera icon]. If you are unable to locate the snapshot tool, Acrobat Reader has
an excellent help function.
We have already received some very useful feedback on this report. If you'd like to provide us with any
feedback, email us at
VICNISS @ mh.org.au or phone 9342 2605.
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Scientific Meeting 2006
Mike Richards from the VICNISS Coordinating Centre recently attended the 16th Society for Healthcare
Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Annual Scientific Meeting 2006, held in Chicago, between the 18th and 21st March.
This meeting (intended for physicians, nurses and others involved in hospital epidemiology and hospital
infection prevention and control) was to present and discuss recent advances in these fields, and is one
of the two major hospital infection meetings in the US annually. This Conference also allowed us to
receive information on recent changes to the National Health and Safety Network (NHSN), including
changes to the Colorectal (COLO) SSI procedure group as described in the Type 1 Surveillance Update
below, with the incorporation of NNIS into NHSN.
One VICNISS poster was presented, titled "Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Smaller Hospitals, Victoria, Australia".
If you are interested in reading a summary of highlights from the program at the SHEA conference,
please click here (opens in a new window).
CDC/APIC Study Tour 2006
Claire Boardman is one of eight Infection Control Consultants chosen from Australia and New Zealand (1)
who will be participating in a study tour to the US, sponsored by Becton Dickinson and Infection Control
Plus. Claire will join two Victorian colleagues and a total delegation of 12 in an observational study tour
with the general goal of exposing Australian and New Zealand Opinion Leaders to:
- the APIC conference to enable them to better understand the need for and possible methods to improve
the content and administration of the AICA conference;
international networks;
- global infection control leadership and strategic envisioning including staff of the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (APIC);
- relevant US experts and opinion leaders who have shaped and/or critiqued the infection prevention movement; and
- innovative approaches to contemporary infection prevention.
During Claire’s absence from VICNISS (6th – 16th June) please contact
Phil Russo on 9342 2681 with any queries.
Type 1 Surveillance Update
Surveillance of Mastectomy Procedures
From Quarter 2 2006 several hospitals will be contributing data for the MAST (Mastectomies) procedure group.
If you plan to undertaken surveillance in this group please ensure you are using the updated ICD codes and
procedure. Claire has previously circulated these revised codes to all participating hospitals but if you
have not received a copy and need one please go to: www.vicniss.org.au/HCW/Type1/ICD10Codes.aspx.
Surveillance of Colorectal Procedures
Initially this group of surgeries created quite a bit of discussion particularly in terms of how to apply
infection definitions and which procedures should be included in the COLO group. The new NSHN program
(incorporating NNIS) has divided the COLO group into Colon (COLO) and Rectal (REC) surgery as two
distinct groups. Preliminary discussions have indicated that local surgeons think that this is useful
in terms of infection risk, and as a result of this, and to maintain the ability for comparison with
NHSN in the future, we will also collect these procedures separately. We will aim to start collecting
with the new groups from 1 October 2006. The new ICD10-AM codes will be posted on the VICNISS Website
prior to that time. We hope this will resolve some of the issues.
VICNISS is keen to hear from you if you have ongoing or unresolved issues relating to surveillance or
infection rates and reporting and, if you have particular scenarios that we may include on the VICNISS
Website to assist participants in case finding and reporting.
Type 2 Surveillance Update
Thank you to everyone who has submitted their Quarter 1 data. If you are having issues submitting on time, please contact
Noleen on 9342 3906 to discuss.
Please remember that data collection forms from the new version of the manual are be used as of 1st April 2006
(ie. as from Quarter 2). Also, three monthly data summary forms (Appendix 7.3 in the manual) are to be faxed to the
VICNISS Coordinating Centre for each quarter. Please tick ALL modules that have been completed for each month.
For most hospitals this includes the Multi Resistant Organism, Bloodstream Infection, Occupational Exposure and
Surgical Infection Report modules.
And finally, please note that the ‘Surgical Site Infection’ and ‘Surgical Infection Report’
are two different modules. Only four Type 2 hospitals are currently participating in the Surgical Site Infection module.
Infection Control Literature Review, April 2006
Our most recent literature review, for April, compiled
by Dr Deb Friedman, VICNISS Infectious Diseases Physician, discusses current research on the following selected topics:
- Stick to Old-fashioned Surveillance for Now!
- Sampling for Collection of Central Line–Day Denominators in Surveillance of ICU-Associated Bloodstream Infections
- Hospitals with a Greater Surgical Volume have Lower SSI Rates
- Finger Rings and Handwashing in the Operating Theatre
