This study provides an application of datamining approach to CQJ using the discharge summary. First, we found a process variation in hospital infection rate by SPC (Statistical Process Control) technique. Second, importance of factors influencing hospital infection was inferred through the decision tree analysis which is a classification method in data -mining approach. The most important factor was surgery followed by comorbidity and length of operation. Comorbidity was further divided into age and principal diagnosis and the length of operation was further divided into age and chief complaint. 24 rules of hospital infection were generated by the decision tree analysis. Of these, 9 rules with predictive prover greater than 50% were suggested as guidelines for hospital infection control. The optimum range of target group in hospital infection control were identified through the information gain summary.Association rule, which is another kind of datamining method, was performed to analyze the relationship between principal diagnosis and comorbidity. The confidence score, which measures the degree of association, between urinary tract infection and causal bacillus was the highest, followed by the score between postoperative wound disruption and postoperative wound infection.This study demonstrated how datamining approach could be used to provide information to support prospective surveillance of hospital infection. The datamining technique can also be applied to various areas for CQI using other hospital databases.
Bacillus ; Classification ; Comorbidity ; Cross Infection ; Data Mining* ; Decision Trees ; Diagnosis ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Wounds and Injuries