Validation of a multicenter computer-based surveillance system for hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in neonatal intensive care departments.

Automated systems can facilitate surveillance for health care-associated infections. The New York Antimicrobial Resistance Project (NYARP) electronically monitors trends in bloodstream infections from 6 medical centers in New York, NY. To validate NYARP's data, episodes of health care-associated bloodstream infections detected by this system were compared with those obtained by an infection control practitioner performing an unrelated study in 2 participating neonatal intensive care departments. The sensitivity (84%), specificity (99%), and positive (84%) and negative (99%) predictive values of NYARP were excellent when coagulase-negative staphylococcal bloodstream infections were removed.