We chose alcohol-based swabs,
but we also considered povidone-
iodine swabs. With this method,
you administer alternating 30-sec-
ond swabs of each nostril for a
total of 4 applications. It's an
effective antiseptic method, but
the swabs are somewhat messy to
apply and cost $26 per patient.
Addition-ally, some patients are
allergic to povidone-iodine.
When we decided to move for-
ward with the alcohol-based anti-
septic, we developed a clinical
practice guideline and implement-
ed it after our infection control
practitioner approved it. It's stan-
dard practice for our pre-op nurses to treat every patient — barring a
surgeon's specific recommendations or other contraindication, such
as nasal and other head and neck surgeries (the alcohol contained in
the product increases surgical fire risk) — with the sanitizer.
Proof is in the numbers
The program went live in January 2017, and the results have been
overwhelmingly positive. We've found that our patients are very
accepting of the process; often, they comment that they appreciate
the efforts we make to reduce their infection risks. But the fact is,
it's had a real impact on our SSI rate. Our already-low levels of
SSIs have regressed year after year. Our baseline infection rate
baseline for all cases was 0.8% in 2015, 0.7% in 2016, 0.55% in 2017
M A Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 3
• BY A NOSE An alcohol-based antiseptic is a patient-friendly
way to inhibit the growth of nasal Staphylococcus aureus.
