Surveillance of hospital acquired infections: presentation of a computerised system.

Day by day surveillance of hospital acquired infections is a time-consuming activity. Healthcare professionals need powerful computer tools to manage and analyse these data. Such a program must include all the functions needed to manage communication with other programs in order to minimise data entry. Coherence checks are then used to validate data. Automatic production of reports, graphics or tables enables users to quickly obtain timely and representative documents regarding the evolution of specific indicators. The local person in charge for the system must be able to easily modify many parts of the program (data entry screens, calculations, checks, etc.) without any direct intervention from a computer specialist. Using this description, we have created a specific software for the management of this information named NosoCom. The program has been used for four years in France and Belgium. An English release is now available.