HAI-Net Mortality review
Research type
Research Study
Full title
HAI-Net mortality review validity and reproducibility study
IRAS ID
229491
Contact name
Richard Pugh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
(Dutch) National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
OJ/20/11/2015-PROC/2015/030, Tender specifications
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 15 days
Research summary
Study into the possible contribution of healthcare-associated infections to mortality
Patients in hospitals are at risk to acquire healthcare-associated infections (HAI). A HAI can aggravate the condition of a patient and sometimes result in death. The contribution of a HAI to mortality is, however, difficult to assess as patients affected by these infections are often seriously ill and at risk of dying already.
One way to study the contribution of HAIs to mortality is by statistical analysis. However, statistical approaches have limitations. Another approach is mortality review where doctors assess the extent to which a HAI contributed to the death of a patient based on their professional evaluation of the patient.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) facilitates the surveillance of HAIs in Europe within the Healthcare-associated infections-Network (HAI-Net). The ECDC intends to integrate mortality review in the HAI-Net protocols and has therefore initiated this study. The aim of this “HAI-Net Mortality review validity and reproducibility study” is to evaluate to what extent the review tool measures the same when used by different persons (reproducibility).
Participants
All hospitals that take part in the national surveillance of HAI and, through their national surveillance networks, in HAI-Net, are eligible. Hospitals can choose to include deceased patients with intensive care unit-acquired, surgical site and/or Clostridium difficile infection. In total 37 hospitals participate, from 11 countries.
All adult patients with a HAI who died in the hospital are included: the medical records of these patients are reviewed by their treating physician and a colleague-doctor from the same hospital. This study does not involve any treatment, handling or study of patients themselves, alive or dead.
Subsequently the pseudonymized data, without patient names or identification numbers, are entered into a database for central analysis by the primary investigator. This study lasts 8 months.REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
17/WA/0237
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion