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  7. Protocols and software for surveillance

Protocols and software for point prevalence survey on infections in acute care hospitals

The objectives of the ECDC point prevalence survey of HAI and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals are:

 To describe patients, invasive procedures, infections (sites, microorganisms including markers for antimicrobial resistance) and prescribed antimicrobials (compounds, indications):
        o By type of patients, medical specialty or type of healthcare facility;
        o By type of patients, medical specialty or type of healthcare facility;
        o By country, following adjustment or stratification;
 - To disseminate results to those who need to know at local, regional, national and EU level in order:
 - To raise awareness about HAI and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals; To raise awareness about HAI and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals;
 - To train and reinforce surveillance structures and skills;
 - To identify common EU problems and set up priorities accordingly;
 - To evaluate the effect of strategies and guide policies for future action at the local, regional and national level (through repeated EU point prevalence surveys);
 - To provide a standardised tool for hospitals to identify targets for quality improvement.

Submitting data: Protocol and software

HelicsWin.Net software

HelicsWin.Net (also referred to as HWN) is a software application developed for the manual entry of data of the ECDC HAI-Net surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

ECDC protocol for point prevalence surveys

The protocol provides a standardized methodology to EU Member States and hospitals to respond to article II.8.c of Council Recommendation of 9 June 2009 on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections (2009/C 151/01). It also integrates the main variables of the ESAC hospital-point prevalence survey protocol, thereby also providing support to Council Recommendation of 15 November 2001 on the prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine (2002/77/EC).

Operational versions of the validation protocol, training materials and FAQs (for hospitals) are now available on the ECDC Extranet. Please log in to access it: