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O U T P A T 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 | M A R C H 2 0 1 5
How We Set Up Our SSI Surveillance Program
Tracking infections gives you the upper hand in the fight against them.
S
urgical site
infections in
hand cases
had long been a prob-
lem at our large ortho-
pedic center. As our
infection prevention-
ist, I can't say for cer-
tain which of the
many initiatives we
implemented deserves
the credit for the sig-
nificant decrease in
hand SSIs, but the one
thing I do know is that
our SSI surveillance
program set the stage
for improvement.
Monitoring and track-
ing SSIs and trends
made it possible to determine what problems existed and whether our
interventions were helping.
Currently, surgical centers aren't required to report SSI rates to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so there aren't published
rates we can use to benchmark against. (Rumor has it that may
change soon.) But we know we're making strides, and will continue to
do so. Here's how we did it, and how you can implement an SSI sur-
veillance program.
I N F E C T I O N P R E V E N T I O N
Lori Groven, MSPHN, RN, CIC
z KEEPING TRACK Consistent documentation is
key to be able to access data and monitor trends.