Moving beyond administrative data sets and coding data.

In the study by Harris et al1 in this issue of Hospital Pediatrics, the authors attempted to compare the identifi cation of central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) by using administrative coding data versus clinical criteria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are reported to a voluntary infection control network. The authors demonstrated that more CLABSIs were reported with the voluntary network (n = 138) than with the administrative data (n = 76). In analyzing the data, using the infection control network as the gold standard, they found that CLABSI identifi cation by using coding data had a sensitivity of 35% with a positive predictive value of 63%.