RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Korean Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (KONIS) operating since July 2006 is the first nationwide monitoring system for nosocomial infections in the in the intensive care unit (lCU) with a standard protocol and web-based prompt response network in Korea. This report describes the characteristics of the KONIS hospitals compared with those of all Korean hospitals with 400 beds and over. METHODS: A survey was conducted for the 44 hospitals participating in KONIS 2006, and the data were rechecked by the KONIS hospitals through KONIS web-network. The survey form included questions about the size of the hospital, infection control personnel, nursing personnel, and the status of microbiologic laboratory. RESULTS: Compared to all Korean hospitals with 400 beds and over, the KONIS hospitals were larger in term of average number of beds (857 vs 654); the number of hospitals with 700 beds and over was over-represented in Seoul (P=0.01) and under-represented in the central/south area (P<0.001) The majority of the KONIS hospitals were major teaching university-affiliated (88,6%) and private (72.7%), but in the central/south area, public hospitals comprised up to 60%. The number of infection control professionals (ICP) averaged 1.6, hospital beds per ICP 531, and infectious disease physicians 1.3. Medical and medical combined ICUs were the major component (67,1%) of the KONIS ICUs, The lCU bed per nurse was 0.63. CONCLUSION: The KONIS 2006 hospitals were over-represented in the overall indicators in Seoul. Because no objective indicators were available regarding the patient quality, KONIS data must be interpreted in consideration of all indicators.