Tasks of the NRZ

The NRZ for Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections provides its partners, physicians, healthcare institutions, laboratories and public health institutions with the following services:

OP-KISS (surgical site infections in inpatient care)
ITS-KISS (HAIs on ICUs)
NEO-KISS (HAIs on neonatology ICUs)
ONKO-KISS (HAIs in neuropenic patients)
AMBU-KISS (surgical site infections in outpatient care)
CDAD-KISS (monitoring of Clostridium difficile-related diseases)
DEVICE-KISS (HAIs in patients with devices, e.g. CVCs)
HAND-KISS (alcohol-based handrub use in hospitals, outpatient care and assisted living)
MRSA-KISS (monitoring of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
MRE-KISS (monitoring of other multidrug-resistant organisms)

Since 1997, KISS has worked together with hospitals to provide structures for recording healthcare-associated infections and related data as well as reference data for benchmarking.

2. Expertise and training on healthcare-associated infection surveillance and the interpretation of surveillance data.

It is possible for hospitals to employ KISS methods and use KISS reference data for benchmarking without taking part in KISS. The NRZ provides support in using diagnostic definitions for healthcare-associated infections and help with other methodological questions.

3. Support for outbreak investigations

Hospitals and other healthcare providers sometimes suffer from infections by and colonizations with healthcare-associated infections and multidrug-resistant organisms in their patients. The NRZ can provide aid in evaluating epidemiological data in order to plan intervention measures.

4. Cooperation with European projects: HELICS III/IV, PPS, PROHIBIT, etc.