Patent ID: 8060317

Claim:
A computer-readable non-transitory medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for analyzing patient hospitalization data to determine a Nosocomial Infection Marker (NIM), the method comprising the steps of: receiving from a database hospitalization data associated with at least one patient; identifying from the hospitalization data a number of specimens with nonduplicate hospital isolates (SNDHI) markers through the steps of: segregating a first isolate of a microorganism from a patient obtained during a determined first period of time; eliminating additional isolates of the same microorganism from the patient obtained within the determined first period of time when the additional isolates were not tested against antimicrobial drugs; eliminating each additional isolate of the same microorganism from the patient obtained within the determined first period of time when the additional isolate was tested against antimicrobial drugs and an interpreted antimicrobial susceptibility result of the test differs from the first isolate on fewer than a predetermined number of drugs; identifying hospital isolates; and assigning a SNDHI marker to each hospital isolate; and determining the NIM for each patient, wherein the NIM is equal to the sum of the SNDHI markers for the patient.