Short Surgeries Stop Site Infections
Research in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests that hospitals with surgical procedures that are shorter in duration and use of fewer blood transfusions have a low incidence of surgical site infections (SSI).Researchers compared 20 low SSI incidence and 13 high SSI incidence hospitals with regard to patient characteristics, operative variables, structural variables, and processes of care.
December 10, 2008
Results of the analysis showed that hospitals with high SSI rates performed operations that took significantly longer on average compared with hospitals with low SSI rates (128 +/- 104.3 min. compared with 102.7 +/- 89.9 min., respectively; p<0.001). In addition, hospitals with low SSI rates were less likely to administer transfusions than hospitals with high SSI rates (5.1% versus 9.7%, respectively; p = 0.03).In the article in the December issue of JACS, researchers called for further studies to explore the link between higher transfusion rates in higher SSI incidence hospitals. Overall, results of the study showed that hospitals with low SSI incidence rates were smaller, more efficient in the delivery of care, and experienced little operative staff turnover.
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