Educational Prevention Program of Surgical Site Infections (SSI)

Surgical site infections (SSI) cause negative health care effects to patients and hospitals. SSI is one of the most common types of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) accounting for 31% among hospitalized patients (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). It is associated with prolonged length of stays (LOS), higher morbidity and mortality, and increased healthcare costs. The purpose of this quality improvement project is to decrease SSI rates by enhancing patient education and engagement in preoperative care and hygiene before surgery. In a metropolitan pediatric hospital, a microsystem analysis of the preoperative unit was conducted before generating the SSI Prevention Assessment Audit Tool. The audit tools were distributed to and completed by the preoperative nurses to assess patients’ cleanliness before surgery. Data from the audit tool are to be collected before and after the implementation of an educational pamphlet and a phone call script provided to patients to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of the project. A total of 60 audit tools were collected from June 4th to June 28th, 2018. From the 60 surveys, 20 were marked as “N/A” and were not included in the data analysis. Overall, of the 40 completed surveys, 28 (70%) patients were clean and 12 (30%) patients were dirty. Currently, the education pamphlet is being reviewed for approval by the Patient and Family Education Committee of the hospital. When the educational pamphlet and phone call script are implemented, a team of CNL students will then be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the Educational Prevention Program of SSI