Survey: Rising demand for infection control systems

Hospital administrators, emergency physicians, nurse managers and infection control practitioners increasingly view infection control and surveillance software systems as “must-haves” for 2015, according to a recent report from Black Book Rankings.

In its survey of 900 professionals, 72 percent reported that they have not actively monitored hospital-associated infection rates effectively with manual reporting and understaffed coordination. However, recent reimbursement reforms, accountable care incentives and value-based purchasing have improved access to better population health data, driving demand of infection control systems.

Until recently, the ROI for most medical facilities was not sufficient to implement automated infection control and management software.

"Infection control surveillance software has proven to help some medical centers identify and reduce hospital-acquired infections, ultimately facilitating hospitals’ efforts to save lives and reduce costs," said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, in a statement. "However, until the attention brought to infection control recently by both Ebola and accountable care, the software received low acquisition priority by administrators who had back-burnered infection control automation tools for EHR, interoperability, security and revenue cycle initiatives."

Of those surveyed, 41 percent of all hospitals over 150 beds routinely use computerized infection control information and real-time surveillance systems, up from 28 percent in 2012 and 15 percent in 2010, according to the report. Sixty-nine percent of U.S. hospitals currently are looking to purchase or replace infection control products by the second quarter of 2015.

Access the survey results here.