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Updated guidelines aim to prevent surgical site infections, reduce costs
Updated guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infections were recently released by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and The Joint Commission.
The evidence-based guidelines provide a framework for health care institutions to prioritize and implement strategies to reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections and serve as an update to the 2008 “Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals.”
As many as 5% of patients who undergo inpatient surgery develop surgical site infections (SSIs); about 160,000 to 300,000 cases occur each year in the United States. Each case requires an estimated 7 days of prolonged hospitalization, accounting for about $3.5 billion of annual health care costs.
“The evidence-based recommendations released today are broader and more inclusive than other clinical guidelines and include 15 strategies for prevention that go beyond standard practices required by the government or other national organizations,” guideline co-author Deverick Anderson, MD, MPH, of Duke University Hospital, said in a press release.
Deverick Anderson
To prevent SSIs, researchers suggest health care workers should:
- Follow appropriate antimicrobial prescribing practices before and after surgery;
- Follow protocols for hair removal, preoperative skin disinfection, and control of blood glucose levels in cardiac patients;
- Implement postoperative surveillance by reviewing microbiology reports, patient medical records, surgeon and patient surveys, and screen for readmission or return to the operating room.
The update encourages a multidisciplinary approach for prevention of SSIs; researchers recommend all health care personnel contribute to prevention efforts.
Keith Kaye
“Formal recommendations can be limited if they rely exclusively on randomized control trial supporting data. The current compendium details strategies that incorporate information from a wider variety of study designs to emulate ‘real world’ scenarios in order to provide practical recommendations for SSI prevention and surveillance,” co-author and Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member Keith Kaye, MD, MPH, of Wayne State University, said in the release.