Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay
Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay
‘The Never Events’ are Preventable According to a press release dated 31 July 2008 from the CMS Office of Public Affairs (2008), the ‘never events’ are preventable medical errors that result in serious consequences for the patient. As a result, such events cause serious injury or death to the beneficiaries and unnecessary costs to the Medicare and Medicaid systems. According to CMS (2008), hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) are the conditions which were absent before admission and developed during the hospital stay. The benefit is that this step will make hospitals improve the reliability of care they provide to patients. What is Surgical Site Infection (SSI)? A surgical site infection (SSI) can be defined as the infection that occurs after surgery in the place where the surgery was conducted. It is estimated that nearly 1-3 patients out of every 100 patients who had surgery develop SSI. Surgical Site Infection takes place because during surgery, one of the body’s most important protective covering-the skin- is opened. Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay.As a result, pathogens from the patient’s body, environment, or surgical instruments easily enter the body through the incision made during the surgery and cause infection. Surgical Site Infections can be minor or serious. Sometimes, the infections go superficial covering only the skin, and sometimes, such infections become serious affecting organs and even implanted material, leading to serious illness and even death. The symptoms of surgical site infections include redness, pain, drainage of cloudy fluid, fever, and so on. In fact, the chances for surgical site infections increase if the patient has an existing health problem and if the surgical site is not properly cleaned. Thirdly, the longer the surgical procedure is, the higher the infection chances will be. Various Studies According to the information provided by COLLATAMPG (n. d.), nearly 40-60% of the present surgical site infections are preventable. Brown et al (2009) point out that not all surgical site infections are preventable. To illustrate, based on a study, the scholars prove that only 40-60% of the surgical site infections are preventable. Also, it is noted that timely prophylaxis is not linked to surgical site infection rates in orthopedic surgeries. In addition, providing antibiotics in time is not associated with the rate of surgical site infection. However, there is the observation that using the available techniques, it is not possible to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections to zero. Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay.To illustrate, Brown et al (2009) point out that 40-60% of the surgical site infections are preventable. Based on studies, the scholars point out that timely prophylaxis is not linked to reduced rates of surgical site infections in orthopedic surgeries. Similarly, timely antibiotics intake is not connected with surgical site infection rate. However, it was possible to reduce the vascular catheter-associated infections in adult patients by 56% when the ‘best available prevention techniques’ were used (Brown et al 2009). Similarly, Nichols and Florman (2001) look. Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay.
A surgical site infection, or SSI, is an infection of a wound that was made due to surgery. Such infections can be superficial (infection of skin only) and other infections can be more serious (deep tissue infection). A superficial infection at the surgical site is defined as “an infection… Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay.
Because SSI rates for healthcare facilities are made public, patients are able to gain knowledge of how well their facility SSI prevention practices work. “It is moving fast and furiously because consumers are pleased with the progress that has been made in reducing central line infections,” says Linda Greene, MPS, RN, CIC, director, infection prevention, Rochester General Health System, Rochester, New York. The public now expects the same transparency for SSIs” (Patterson, P., 2011) .Facilities that participate in Medicare must report their SSI for certain procedures; the list of procedures to report continues to grow as patients’ demand for listed procedures grow. ” SSI data will be reported through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a secure, web-based surveillance system for reporting data on infections and other events. The data can then be used for analysis, facility comparisons, and quality improvement.” (Patterson, P., 2011) Hospitals will, and should, continuously search for new ways to increase their quality of care. Having a great overall rating for a low number of incidences of SSIs can only boost their ratings. Along with the unfortunate incidences of SSIs come legal implications. Of course, involving the legal system in cases of SSIs are desired to be avoided but. Continuous Quality Care Surgical Site Infection Essay.
