directly has made a difference," says Ms. Washington. "They just want
to know if it works, if it will delay their cases and what the benefits
really are. Having their peers be the ones to answer their questions
helps their offices accept this new way of thinking."
2. CHG bathing
Adding a few steps pre-operatively can make a big difference in your
surgical site infection prevention efforts. Take pre-op CHG bathing,
for example. Denice Morrison, MSN, RN-BC, CNOR, perioperative
education coordinator at North Kansas Hospital, notes that her facility
has seen an improvement by implementing a protocol requiring pre-
op CHG bathing for patients.
"The biggest benefit we have seen is a reduction in bacteria on the
patient's skin prior to the surgical prep that has resulted in fewer sur-
gical site infections," says Ms. Morrison. "Our procedure population
includes a large number of total joint replacements; and we want to
ensure that they are protected as much as possible from an SSI."
The hospital's surgical services department instructs patients to take
a CHG bath before coming to the hospital for their procedure. But
because the facility "cannot control whether a patient follows the
request to complete a CHG bath," Ms. Morrison notes that it was
important they had backup procedures in place. Staff ask patients on
the day of surgery if they've completed the pre-surgery bath. If not,
then a pre-op nurse uses a CHG wipe to cleanse them.
Key to making pre-op bathing work is educating both staff and
patients, says Ms. Morrison. She notes that the hospital completed a
"performance improvement project" that provided in-house education
to nurses on the importance of not only the CHG bath itself, but also
proper documentation and patient education. "We found that with
proper education, compliance increased," she says.
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