Physician GermWatch

Provides Intermountain Physicians and clinicians with relevant information to their scope of practice (e.g., inpatient, outpatient, emergency department, adults vs. children). This app consists of two parts, Antibiograms and Surveillance.

An antibiogram is the cumulative results from laboratory testing of isolated bacterial strains for susceptibility to different antibiotics and can be used as a tool by clinicians in the selection of an appropriate antibiotic(s). The antibiogram should only be used as a general guide for empirical antimicrobial therapy until such time that specific susceptibility results on a given patient’s isolates become available.

Surveillance consists of Disease Updates and Respiratory and gastrointestinal information in graph form.

The Disease Update is an overview of GermWatch surveillance activity and is updated at least once a week (usually on Mondays) or whenever important information is detected. The update highlights current activity and can contain links to external sources.

Respiratory and gastrointestinal surveillance is based upon laboratory-confirmed cases detected in the hospitals and clinics throughout the Intermountain system.

Syndrome surveillance is based upon CM-ICD-9 diagnosis codes, reason for visit, etc. to identify patients fitting into a syndrome of interest (i.e., influenza-like illness or ILI).