Clinical Use of Smartphones Among Medical and Nursing Staff in Greece: A Survey.

The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical use of smartphones among medical and nursing staff in Greece. This study used a 17-item questionnaire that was administered to the participants by the authors. The sample consists of 974 participants of 1200 who were asked to participate (ie, a response rate of 81.3%). The survey was open to all categories of medical and nursing staff (junior doctors, specialized doctors, assistant nurses, and RNs). In total, 167 participants (18.5%) were nurse assistants; 385 participants (42.6%), nurses; 154 participants (17%), specialized doctors; and 198 participants (21.9%), junior doctors. The data analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics (version 21), and the significance level was set to .05. Medical doctors own smartphones on a higher percentage in comparison with nurses. Among smartphone owners, medical doctors use their devices for clinical issues more frequently compared with nurses. Although medical doctors believe that smartphones can be a great tool for their work, they state that they do not use it for clinical reasons. Nurses state that they do not use their smartphones for clinical reasons because they are not aware of the existence of applications that can be used to assist them in their daily clinical tasks.

Surveillance of device-associated infection rates and mortality in 3 Greek intensive care units.

BACKGROUND: Several studies suggest that device-associated, health care-associated infections (DA-HAIs) affect the quality of care in intensive care units, increasing patients' morbidity and mortality and the costs of patient care. OBJECTIVES: To assess the DA-HAIs rates, microbiological profile, antimicrobial resistance, and crude excess mortality in 3 intensive care units in Athens, Greece. METHODS: A prospective cohort, active DA-HAI surveillance study was conducted in 3 Greek intensive care units from July 2009 to June 2010. The rates of mechanical ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), central catheter-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) were calculated along with microbiological profile, antimicrobial resistance, and crude excess mortality. RESULTS: During 6004 days in intensive care, 152 of 294 patients acquired 205 DA-HAIs, an overall rate of 51.7% of patients or 34.1 DA-HAIs per 1000 days (95% CI, 29.3-38.6). The VAP rate was 20 (95% CI, 16.3-23.7) per 1000 ventilator-days, the CLABSI rate was 11.8 (95% CI: 9.2-14.8) per 1000 catheter-days, and the CAUTI rate was 4.2 (95% CI, 2.5-5.9) per 1000 catheter-days. The most frequently isolated pathogen was Acinetobacter baumannii among patients with CLABSI (37.8%) and Candida species among patients with CAUTI (66.7%). Excess mortality was 20.3% for VAP and CLABSI and 32.2% for carbapenem-resistant A baumannii CLABSI. CONCLUSION: High rates of DA-HAIs, device utilization, and antimicrobial resistance emphasize the need for antimicrobial stewardship, the establishment of an active surveillance program of DA-HAIs, and the implementation of evidence-based preventive strategies.