Surgical Site Infection Outcomes in Hip Replacement
Surgical Site Infections represent approximately 15% of all hospital-acquired infections nationwide. Not only do infections cause additional medical problems for patients, but they can increase the time a patient spends in the hospital, and sometimes, can result in serious illness. The risk of healthcare-associated infections can be reduced by following best practices for infection prevention. Learn more about what BIDMC is doing to address this problem in several important areas.
What are we measuring?
The rate of surgical site infection (SSI) among patients who have undergone elective hip replacement or trauma-related hip replacement surgery within the past quarter. Trauma-related hip replacement surgery is unplanned hip replacement surgery that might be immediately necessary due to an accident or a fall.
Note: Hospitals use different ways to calculate surgical infection rates. We calculate our rates per 100 cases based on standard definitions from the CDC, and include deep tissue infections and infections involving organs or spaces accessed during the operation.
Why is this important?
The rate of surgical site infection is an indicator of how well a hospital is following recommended guidelines for infection prevention and ensuring that everything possible is done prior to, during, and immediately following the surgical procedure to prevent hospital-acquired infections. These guidelines and practices are known as the "Surgical Site Infection Prevention Bundle." At BIDMC, we have created enhanced "Surgical Site Infection Prevention Bundles" that combine national recommendations and the best evidenced-based recommendations from medical literature.
What is our performance telling us?
The chart below shows how BIDMC's performance compares to our internal benchmark which is the average surgical infection rate for elective hip replacement surgery or trauma-related hip replacement surgery of the previous year. Look for big differences in the rates in order to be sure that the difference is meaningful. Small differences may not reflect real differences in performance (i.e., they may not be statistically significant).
*The Internal Benchmark for FY 2012 is the mean FY 2011 rate for elective hip replacement surgery.
View our past performance over time
BIDMC's rate of surgical site infection among patients undergoing elective hip surgery during the 4th Quarter of FY 2012 is 3.6 infections per 100 patients.
For comparison, the average surgical site infection rate for elective hip replacement surgery at BIDMC in FY 2011 was .9 infections per 100 surgical cases.
*The Internal Benchmark for FY 2012 is the mean FY 2011 rate for trauma related hip replacement surgery. View our past performance over time.
BIDMC's surgical site infection rate among patients undergoing trauma-related hip replacement during the 4th Quarter of FY 2012 is 0.0. For comparison, the average surgical site infection rate for trauma related hip replacement surgery at BIDMC in FY 2011 was 1.1.
There were no surgical site infections (SSI) among patients who have undergone trauma-related hip replacement surgery within the past quarter at BIDMC.
What are we doing to improve our performance?
BIDMC has established a Surgical Site Infection Prevention Committee comprised of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses across many specialties and staff with expertise in infection control to develop specific infection prevention practices tailored to different surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacement surgery.
One component in the prevention of surgical site infections is the use of medicines called antibiotics. Each quarter, BIDMC orthopaedic surgeons routinely review how closely they are following recommended guidelines for surgical care in order to reduce the risk of infection as well as the side effects of antibiotics.
Patients undergoing elective knee or hip replacement surgery are screened at the pre-operative appointment for Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacteria found on the skin or in the nose. If this bacteria is present, this knowledge will help guide the physician in choosing the most effective antibiotics for the patient's procedure. Read more about the Surgical Site Infection Prevention Bundle for more details on our efforts to prevent surgical site infections.
Other useful measures on infections:
Last updated: January 17, 2013