Table 1

Summary of major differences in protocol

ECDC protocol	Deviations	Rationale
Patient inclusion and exclusion
All patients admitted to the ward before or at 08:00 and not discharged from the ward at the time of survey, including neonates on maternity and paediatric wards, will be included	50% patients in acute wards and all intensive care unit patients Only adults ≥18 years old admitted to the ward before or at 08:00 and not discharged from the ward at the time of survey will be included	Insufficient resources to sample every patient
Data collection processes
Composition of the team responsible for data collection varied from one hospital to another	The same data collectors will be collecting data for all hospitals in the PPS	To minimise variation and maximise consistency in classifying infections Minimise the burden of data collection on participating hospitals
Total time frame for data collection for all wards of a single hospital did not exceed 2 to 3 weeks	Data to be collected during a one-off hospital visit (1–3 days)	Same data collectors used across all facilities Smaller sample size
Patient data fields
McCabe score was employed to classify the severity of underlying medical conditions	No risk factor data will be collected	Insufficient resources to collect risk factor data
Antimicrobial use	No antimicrobial use data will be collected	Antimicrobial data already collected in annual point prevalence survey
Data validation
Recommended sample size at the national level was 750 patients in 25 hospitals	Records of 100% of patients identified as having an infection at the first hospital (up to a maximum of 40) and a random sample of 5% of those identified as not having an infection will be reviewed	Same data collectors used across all facilities Pragmatic validation within existing resources
Validation team consisted was separate from the original data collection team	Validation team members will consist of the chief investigators who cross-check the data	Same data collectors used across all facilities
Blinded data validation recommended	Validation team will not be blinded	Not practical for this study

ECDC, European Centres for Disease Control; PPS, point prevalence study.