[Algorithms for hospital-acquired infection surveillance in intensive care units]. / Algoritmos para la vigilancia de la infección hospitalaria en una unidad de cuidados intensivos.

UNLABELLED: IINTRODUCTION: the occurrence of nosocomial infection in an intensive care unit is very high and increases the possibilities of the patient's death and the cost of care. OBJECTIVES: to find out and apply diagnosis algorithms for nosocomial infection surveillance at the critical patient care service. METHODS: in 2005, a three-phase research study was carried out in "Cira Garcia" clinics: management and analysis of international and national information on this topic, the preparation of the algorithm, and the application of such algorithm in nosocomial infections surveillance at the progressive care units. RESULTS: three algorithms were found for the most frequent infections and they were used for the nosocomial infection diagnosis for 4 years. CONCLUSIONS: the use of these algorithms is a good supporting method to identify nosocomial infection, which leads to a better and prompt diagnosis and facilitates the involvement of infectious control staff in the individual analysis of each patient.