3 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6
5 Bad Infection Habits to Break
These common practices might do more harm than good to your patients.
S
ome common practices intended to prevent surgical infections
might actually have the unintended consequence of promoting
them. Here's a look at 5 such practices, as chosen recently by
members of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, that
might be more harmful than helpful in your battle against infections.
Don't perform urinalysis, urine culture, blood culture or Clostridium difficile testing
unless patients have signs or symptoms of infection.
This might be the most important recommendation for outpatient
1
Infection Prevention
Daniel J. Morgan, MD, MS
• BEFORE, NOT AFTER Unless there's evidence of infection,
antibiotics provide no benefit after surgery is over.
