Analysis of the AOK Lower Saxony hospitalisation records data (years 2008 -- 2015)

TL;DR

This study analyzes hospitalisation records from Lower Saxony (2008-2015) to understand patient transfer patterns and inform network models for tracking multidrug-resistant bacteria spread across healthcare systems.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of patient transfer data to develop a realistic network model for studying MDR-E transmission dynamics.

Findings

Identified key patient transfer pathways

Quantified inter-hospital patient traffic volumes

Proposed a network model reflecting real hospital connections

Abstract

Multidrug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (MDR-E) have become a major public health threat in many European countries. While traditional infection control strategies primarily target the containment of intra-hospital transmission, there is growing evidence highlighting the importance of inter-hospital patient traffic for the spread of MDR-E within healthcare systems. Our aim is to propose a network model, which will reflect patient traffic in various European healthcare systems and will thus provide the framework to study systematically transmission dynamics of MDR-E and the effectiveness of infection control strategies to contain their spread within and potentially across healthcare systems. However, to do that first we need to analyse real patients data and base on that propose network model reflecting the complexity of the real hospital network connections and dynamics of patient transfers between healthcare facilities.