Surgical Site Infections Essay

Surgical site infections (SSI) occur in 2 – 5% of ‘clean’ non-abdominal surgical procedures (Rothrock, 2007). Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most common cause for SSI in Orthopaedic surgery (NICE, 2008). Guidelines were produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to try and reduce this infection rate and include a preoperative phase, (including hair removal and antibiotic prophylaxis), an intra-operative phase and postoperative phase.

Interventions being implemented includes/; marking of the surgical incision preoperatively, performing a time-out moment just before surgery starts to verify if the team has the right patient, ready for right procedure and on the correct part of the body. According to, “Adherence to the checklist helped in detect instance of human error and instances of equipment malfunction and identify areas that needed strengthening and streamlining”. The surgery team use an approved checklist to confirm they have the correct patient by checking the two patient identifiers, confirm the procedure is the correct one, say incision and drainage and verify that they are just about to operate on the correct site say, right knee.

However, everybody who has contact with the patient or the environment is entitled to relevant information that will enable them to reduce the risks of transmission to

Surgical Technologists have an important role in the operation room (OR). There are different positions within the Surgical Technology field, including Scrub Surgical Technologist, Circulating Surgical Technologist, and Second Assisting Technologist. Scrub Surgical Technologists have a number of tasks, including prepping the patient for surgery, sterilizing the OR, gown and glove surgeons and assistants, and assists the surgeon and other surgical team members in a number of ways, such as passing instruments and dressing wounds. Circulating Surgical Technologists have a number of tasks as well, including checking patient’s charts, identifying patient and verifying the surgery that will be performed with consent forms, assisting anesthesia

Every year a familiar scene plays out in clinic waiting rooms, chairs filled with miserable patients waiting to see their physician with complaints of a never ending cough and a constant nasal drip. More than likely, these patients will receive a prescription for antibiotics, but should they? Most acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs), do not require an antibiotic, the symptoms will resolve themselves over time without antibiotic treatment. Healthcare experts and scientists have warned the public about the dangers of overusing antibiotics, and there are thousands of studies to support that fact, but no one is listening. Patients are convinced they need to have antibiotic treatment, and somehow their time is wasted if they leave empty

Researchers will decide to select wound infections that occur after open heart surgery as a topic for their study, because it is significant for staff nurses to know the effect of wound infections that occurs with the adult patients. Researchers will obtain permission from the cardiac surgery center so that they could collect information from adult patients. They will also contact and meet with staff nurses in cardiac surgery center. Nurse educators will provide the form to all staff nurses working in the operating room. The form includes the title of the study, the purpose of the study, place of the work, duration of the study, potential benefits, potential risks, participant signature, and date. The reader can follow that consent

phase of perioperative care beginning with the decision to perform surgery and continuing until the client reaches the operating area. Starts off whether the patient wants to perform the surgery then continues until the patient reaches the operating area. When a patient is admitted into ambulatory surgery or short before surgery the time for preoperative assessment, nursing diagnoses, and evaluation of the nursing management may be limited. It’s important to recognize the patient’s immediate preoperative needs. Although, the preparation for the surgery is still required by the nursing process. Assessment: in preoperative care it requires a complete assessment of the patient. The assessments differ based on the importance of the surgery and

One of the best methods of reducing infection in patients with any type of wound is sterile technique with dressing change. Heavy colonization of infected sites is a risk factor for infections associated with any type of wound but mostly for wounds that penetrate deeper into the skin. Sterile site dressing is advocated to protect the open wound from contamination because it will come in to direct contact with the wound, and sterility is required in order to execute the application of the dressing successfully. The nursing process is an important principle to use when examining, treating, and maintaining any type of wound or applying wound

Objective data collected regarding surgical site infection as wound swab cultures were obtained four times during the follow-up period. Additionally, the SAAS score was used to assess changes in the body image of patients.

Lastly, non-adherence to Aseptic techniques for surgical patients and with the use invasive of devices such as urinary catheter and central lines can pose as a threat to patients. Bathing patients prior to surgery with a chlorhexidine solution rather than regular soap has proven to reduce the spread of hospital acquired infections. Following protocols with urinary catheters and central lines and also following the guidelines in the care and maintenance of such devices. Another factor is the importance of using chlorhexidine solution for patients who have central lines in an effort to prevent getting an infection in the blood stream. Finally, the importance educating patients on all lines and surgical site care. According to Lobley, “the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence found that surgical site infections (SSIs) accounted for 14% of all HAIs and affected 5% of all surgical patients” (Lobley, 2013). Surgical site infection which is another form of hospital acquired infection can

Postsurgical infection treatment cost negatively impact hospital’s finance and creates a financial burden on the hospital. The financial burden of surgery is increased due to the direct costs incurred by the prolonged hospitalization of the patient, diagnostic tests, and treatment. “Infections related to coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery are some of the most serious infections that require additional costs $40,000 to $50,000” (CABG Infections …, CMS Pay 2008). According to, Contemporary…, this serious and costly errors in the care delivery should never happen. Furthermore, “Hospitals can be penalized up to 1% initially of an organization’s baseline annual Medicare reimbursement” (Cherry, Jacob, 2017, p.392) for performing poor patient

Hospitals report data to The Centers for Disease Control and based on the research and viewing of the data they have concurred that “Surgical site infections are the second most common type of adverse events occurring in hospitalized patient. While advances have been made in infection control practices, including improved operating room ventilation, sterilization methods, barriers, surgical technique, and availability of antimicrobial prophylaxis, SSIs remain a

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

“The Process Improvement in Stanford Hospital’s Operating Room” case has many issues when it comes to regards to its existing instrument provisioning process taking place within the Operating Room (OR) of Stanford’s Hospital. This process entails getting instruments ready for a surgery in the OR and the cleansing of these instruments afterwards; however, there are many problems that arise in this process.

Postoperative surgical site infections according to Nichol (2001) remain a major source of illness in surgical patients. Beaver, (2008) point out that surgical infection is one of the side effects that occur after a patient has gone for surgery.