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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4
• ensure patients
bathe with
chlorhexidine glu-
conate the night
before surgery;
• administer antibi-
otics an hour
before procedures
start; and
• employ a stan-
dardized approach
to applying skin
preps.
What really sepa-
rates their efforts at
curbing SSIs — and
makes them worthy of
winning this year's OR
Excellence Award for Infection Control — is the passion behind their
actions. Infection control is ingrained in the hospital's culture. Look
no further than the mandatory morning scrub-in for anyone perform-
ing surgery. If you're planning on stepping into an OR that day, you'd
better be in front of a sink with brush in hand for 3 minutes. Sure, it's
a great time to catch up with colleagues and see how weekends went
but, more importantly, it sets the tone for the rest of the day.
"Preventing infections demands a huge collaborative effort," says
Lori Benton, RN, the hospital's infection prevention and employee
health manager. Everyone's on board at Tri-State Memorial, from the
orthopedic surgeons who are "fanatical" about keeping infection rates
low to the central sterile team, which takes as much ownership in
l ALL BASES COVERED Tri-State Memorial's standard-
ized prepping practices reduce post-op infection risks.
Seth
Six,
RN
