SURVEILLANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF INFECTION IN A HEMATOLOGY UNIT - USE OF AN IN-HOUSE CLINICAL DATABASE

An effective infection control surveillance programme is essential for the management of patients in a haematology unit. The programme can contribute to the production of antibiotic policies, the monitoring of current clinical practice and has potential in the cost analysis of infection. The use of a computerized database facilitates the management of such a programme. We describe an infection control database using dBASE IV software which runs on a personal computer. The system can accept data sets from other relevant databases and allows the generation of infection control data appropriate to the unit. © 1993.