Survey of infection prevention informatics use and practitioner satisfaction in US hospitals.

We surveyed hospital epidemiologists and infection preventionists on their usage of and satisfaction with infection prevention–specific software supplementing their institution’s electronic medical record. Respondents with supplemental software were more satisfied with their software’s infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship capabilities than those without. Infection preventionists were more satisfied than hospital epidemiologists. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;35(7):891-893 Electronic medical records (EMR) are often augmented with supplemental infection prevention software (SIPS) that assists with the identification and monitoring of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, facilitates regulatory reporting and antimicrobial stewardship, and improves workflows. 1 Hospital epidemiologists and infection preventionists making purchasing decisions about SIPS have little information available on the quality and effectiveness of these products beyond what is provided by the vendors. Additionally, cost and implementation complexity make trying multiple SIPS in a single facility impractical. In order to address this lack of information about SIPS, we conducted a survey of hospital epidemiologists and infection preventionists related to their SIPS usage. The primary aims of this study were to (1) provide descriptive information about SIPS usage and (2) to compare the self-reported user satisfaction of hospital epidemiologists and infection preventionists using SIPS with those using EMR alone in terms of infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship needs. Additionally, we assessed user-reported functionality, cost effectiveness, customizability, and information technology support requirements of SIPS.