Amid the international fury of infectious disease transmission and surveillance, American hospitals are moving off the mark and promptly acquiring pricey, best-of-breed infection control, surveillance and monitoring solutions after decades of manual reporting and heel dragging.
Clearwater, Florida -- Based on the responses of over 900 hospital administrators, emergency physicians, nurse managers and infection control practitioners, Black Book, ranked client experience, outcomes and customer satisfaction of Infection Control and Surveillance software systems.
72% of hospital leaders readily admitted they haven't actively monitored hospital associated infection rates effectively with manual reporting and understaffed coordination, but recent reimbursement reforms, accountable care incentives, and value based purchasing have made access to better population health data will move Infection Control software onto the "must-have" list of 2015.
Despite the CMS decision to discontinue reimbursements for HAIs, the return on investment for most medical facilities wasn't optimistic enough to implement automated infection control and management software until lately.
"Infection control surveillance software has proven to help some medical centers identify and reduce HAIs, ultimately facilitating hospitals' efforts to save lives and reduce costs," said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book. "However, until the attention brought to Infection Control (IC) recently by both ebola and accountable care, the software received low acquisition priority by administrators who had back-burned Infection Control automation tools for electronic health records (EHR), interoperability, security and revenue cycle initiatives."
As hospitals implemented electronic health records, 82% of implemented EHR customers said they have delayed acquiring Infection Control programming, anticipating their enterprise vendor to develop IC system modules and support programs.
41% of all hospitals over 150 beds routinely use computerized infection control information and real-time surveillance systems, up from 28% in 2012 and 15% in 2010.
69% of all US hospitals are currently evaluating IC products for original or replacement purchase and intend to implement an IT system by Q2 2015.
13% of hospitals report that although they recognize how invaluable automated IC systems would be for managing mandatory reporting, the ROI hasn't been proven to justify the cost of acquisition, particularly as HAIs have not improved.
The top ranked Infection Control and Surveillance software vendor across large inpatient settings and achieving highest satisfaction scores in 11 of 18 key performance indicators is Xerox Midas Plus.
Hospitals under 150 beds ranked CareFusion MedMined as the top performer for small and rural facilities.
Other top ranked vendors include: 3M, Atlas Development Corporation, CareFusion MedMined, Cerner Corporation, CKM Healthcare, EpiQuest, ESRI, Hospira TheraDoc, ICNet International, Intersystems, KPMD Infection Control, Pharmacy OneSource, Premier SafetySurveillor, RL Solutions, System Services Inc., Truven Health, Vecna Quality Compass/The Advisory Board, VigiLanz Corporation, and Wolters Kluwer.
The Infection Control subsystems of legacy IT vendors have also been recognized as providing Infection preventionists with easy-to-manage surveillance, data analysis and reporting features. Cerner Corporation's infection control program was named best in breed among enterprise hospital IT vendors.