e-SIN: The New Tool for Reporting Healthcare-Associated Infections

On October 10, 2011, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) launched the rollout in France of the e-SIN application, a new secure web-based tool for reporting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In preparation and development since 2008, this tool is the result of collaboration among all relevant stakeholders: healthcare facilities (HFs), Regional Health Agencies (RHAs), Coordination Centers for the Control of HIs (CClin), regional branches for the control of HIs, the Ministry of Health, and InVS. e-SIN will allow HC professionals, practitioners from operational hygiene teams, and reporting officers to log in to a secure website to complete and validate a reporting form, and make it accessible to its recipients (CClin and ARS, then InVS). By eliminating paper, e-SIN will reduce the workload for all stakeholders and provide them with new levels of responsiveness and interactivity. The e-SIN rollout schedule is planned in five phases starting October 10, beginning with the Eastern region; the Western, Southwestern, Southeastern, and Paris-North regions will follow through December 2011. e-SIN represents a significant step in the InVS’s commitment to modernizing public health surveillance systems and practices. It heralds the arrival of other online reporting tools that will be gradually made available to healthcare professionals, for example for notifiable diseases.