Abstract
Background: The rapid emergence of both new infections and new technologies has revolutionized
health care during the past 50 years. Increased use of the Internet has enabled health
care professionals to educate, interact, and collaborate throughout the world in ways
never before possible. Increased use of vancomycin has been associated with the emergence
of organisms with decreased susceptibility to vancomycin, such as Enterococcus and staphylococcal species. The purpose of this article is to describe our experience
using Internet technology to assess vancomycin use at children’s hospitals in the
United States. Methods: A Web-based evaluation was developed and distributed on the Internet to 57 Pediatric
Prevention Network hospitals. The evaluation was structured to collect summary statistics
on vancomycin use and admissions data by service for 1997 and 1998. Results: Twenty-four hospitals were able to provide archived vancomycin use and patient admissions
data; completed evaluations were returned from 15 hospitals (62.5% response rate).
Personnel at 6 (40%) hospitals completed the evaluation directly on the Internet.
Conclusions: In our study, Internet technology facilitated a more efficient evaluation of vancomycin
use, but fewer than half of the personnel at Pediatric Prevention Network hospitals
completed the evaluation directly on the Internet. It is unclear whether personnel
at these hospitals were limited in Internet access, support, or understanding. Efforts
should be directed to educate health care personnel on the advantages of the Internet.
Furthermore, many of the pharmacy databases used in our assessment were not standardized
across hospitals nor systematically validated. Understanding that limitations still
remain—within the source of the data studied, the health care system sampled, and
the Internet tools available—is essential because the Internet offers health care
professionals today a tool both to protect patients and to improve quality throughout
the world. (AJIC Am J Infect Control 2000;28:459-64)
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Article info
Footnotes
*Reprint requests: Ronda L. Sinkowitz-Cochran, MPH, Hospital Infections Program, Mailstop E-69, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333.
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
