[Is effective a shortened surveillance system of bloodstream infection?]. / Es eficaz un sistema de vigilancia acortado en las infecciones del torrente sanguíneo?

INTRODUCTION: Surveillance is necessary for bloodstream infection control. Daily monitoring of the central venous catheter (CVC) use, a time-demanding process, is the standard denominator to calculate the infection rate; surveillance of only one day per week has been proposed as alternative. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether surveillance of one day per week is similar to daily monitoring in a second-level hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Daily monitoring of CVC utilization ratio was done during nine weeks in four locations of a second-level hospital. For each day, proportional differences respect to the global CVC utilization ratio was estimated. An ANOVA test was done to find differences between each weekday. RESULTS: CVC usage surveillance was performed for 9 weeks, so nine determinations were obtained for each weekday. No significant differences were found between each day (F = 2.20, p = 0.056). The lowest sampling discrepancy was found on Wednesdays. CONCLUSIONS: According to previous studies, and our own data, monitoring the CVC use one day per week is a reasonable alternative to the daily surveillance.