Abstract

Aim: Spreading rate of hospital infections is one of the most important quality indicators of health. In studies conducted by the infection control committee, communication between the laboratory, the infection control team, and the physician is significant. In studies of preventing hospital infections, the use of hospital information and communication technologies is recent. In this study, we aimed to provide the process and effectiveness of clinical decision support systems (DSS) in infection control measures integrated into the information management system in Yozgat City Hospital. Material and Method: In the hospital information management system (HIMS) software, we prepared special warnings for each trigger by coding the triggering factors. When a trigger factor that we encode into the software system is activated, all healthcare workers who are involved with the patient through the HIMS (patient’s doctor, consultant physician, nurse, and allied health personnel such as a dietician and physiotherapist) saw the warning signs. Results: When we compared the period before and after the use of DSSs for infection control preventions in our hospital, our time to reach the patient whose culture produces microorganism that requires isolation and the time to begin isolation has decreased considerably. Conclusion: We believe that our DSS design will provide a positive contribution to efforts to prevent hospital infections that are prioritized in health policies around the world. In this area, decision support systems in order to increase patient and employee safety should be planned and disseminated through the development of different studies and applications with the facilities provided by today’s hospital technologies.

Authors and Affiliations