Automated surveillance of hospital-onset bacteremia and fungemia: feasibility and epidemiological results from a Dutch multicenter study.

Summary: Hospitals work hard to prevent patients from catching new infections during their stay, particularly dangerous bloodstream infections caused by bacteria or fungi. Tracking these infections manually is time-consuming and often inconsistent. A new study from the Netherlands tested an "autopilot" approach across four different hospitals. By connecting computer systems to electronic health records, they automatically scanned for infections that appeared days after a patient was admitted. The system worked well, proving it is feasible to track these infections automatically. The data showed that Intensive Care Units had much higher infection rates than regular wards, and most infections appeared about 8 to 13 days into a hospital stay. This automated tracking could help hospitals spot outbreaks faster and improve patient safety without adding extra work for staff.