VICNISS Information

The VICNISS Coordinating Centre was established in 2002 with the aim of reducing the occurrence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in Victorian healthcare facilities. This includes any infection associated with any form of healthcare, primarily acquired while in hospital or aged care, but also during periods of outpatient treatment such as haemodialysis or hospital in the home. Surveillance and associated reporting of the results have been demonstrated to result in reductions of up to 30% of HAIs. Patients undergoing medical treatment are at increased risk of contracting an infection for a number of reasons, including: Use of invasive medical equipment e.g. needles and intravenous devices Information gleaned from the surveillance is used to identify hospitals with higher than expected infection rates or lower than expected quality measures. This information is fed back (via the Department of Health & Human Services Victorias safety and quality improvement processes) to health service executives who are in a position to address issues of concern and instigate necessary actions. The Coordinating Centre collates the data and provides reports to the Department of Health & Human Services Victoria, as well as to participating hospitals. These reports are accessible by infection control staff as well as by quality improvement personnel, surgeons, executives and other authorised persons who log into VICNISS via a secure online portal. Participating hospital staff have access to their own hospital data, to aggregated data for the State and in some cases to de-identified data from other hospitals. VICNISS Coordinating Centre publishes Annual or Bi-Annual Reports, that can be accessed here which contain data about infection rates for the State of Victoria. Some data on SAB and CLABSI infection rates provided to VICNISS from individual hospitals is available at the following links: The VICNISS Coordinating Centre, funded by the Department of Health & Human Services Victoria, is staffed by a multidisciplinary team ...