Surveillance reports on infectious agents and their antibiotic resistance patterns as well as on the usage of antibiotics are now enforced by law for many medical institutions in Germany. However, specific practice-oriented recommendations concerning the appropriate extent and informative mode of presentation are lacking. This consensus statement resulted from the experience from five German university hospitals in handling data from infection epidemiology and in the various possibilities for the presentation of surveillance reports. The consensus statement provides recommendations for the preparation of the legally demanded surveillance reports, extending the existing regulations. The relevance of statements on frequency and quality of microbiological tests is included. Furthermore, modes for the standardization of the data analysis are suggested in order to achieve a regional and national comparability of the results on a high quality level, similarly to the established standardized surveillance of nosocomial infections. This consensus statement describes the form in which the legally enforced reports can be presented in an informative and standardized way in order to facilitate the deduction and realization of preventive measurements.
