Leveraging electronic medical records to evaluate a computerized decision support system for staphylococcus bacteremia

Infectious disease specialists (IDS) improve outcomes of patients with Staphylococcus bacteremia, but immediate IDS access is not always guaranteed. We investigated whether a care-integrated computerized decision support system (CDSS) can safely enhance the standard of care (SOC) for these patients. We conducted a multicenter, noninferiority, interventional stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial relying on the data integration centers at five university hospitals. By this means, electronic medical records can be used for part of the trial documentation. We analyzed 5056 patients from 134 wards (Staphylococcus aureus (SAB): n = 812, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS): n = 4244) and found that the CDSS was noninferior to the SOC for hospital mortality in all patients. Noninferiority regarding the 90-day mortality/relapse in SAB patients was not observed and there was no evidence for differences in vancomycin usage among CoNS patients. Despite low reported usage, physicians rated the CDSS’s usability favorably. Trial registration: drks.de; Identifier: DRKS00014320; Registration Date: 2019-05-06.