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Community Hospital Surgeon-Specific Infection Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Caryl Collier*
Affiliation:
Missouri Department of Health, Jefferson City, Missouri
Donald P Miller
Affiliation:
Missouri Department of Health, Jefferson City, Missouri
Marguerite Borst
Affiliation:
Missouri Department of Health, Jefferson City, Missouri
*
Nurse Epidemiologist, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, Missouri Department of Health, PO Box 570, Jefferson City, MO 65102

Abstract

A one-year prospective study of surgeon-specific nosocomial infection rates was done in two community hospitals. Hospital A (93 beds) and Hospital B (158 beds) have nearly identical surgical staffs. Unified criteria for the diagnosis of infections, methods of data collection, and coding were used. Data were processed with an IBM 370 computer using Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Each surgeon received semiannual reports of 1) overall infection rate by site, 2) number of surgical wound infections by wound class and type of procedure, 3) pathogens for each deep and incisional infection, and 4) quarterly wound infection rates by wound class. Analysis of reports revealed high Class I surgical wound infection rates for both general and orthopedic surgeons. One person in each group had inordinately high infection rates. These data serve as an objective incentive to reduce surgical wound infections, identify individual problems, and suggest surgical privileges be evaluated by performance.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1987

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