HSAG Knock Out Infections—ASC Infection Prevention Initiative Important Information

SSI Surveillance

A surgical site infection (SSI) is an infection that occurs after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery took place. SSIs can sometimes be superficial infections involving the skin only. Other SSIs are more serious and can involve tissues under the skin, organs, or implanted material. ¹

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides guidelines and tools to the healthcare community to help end SSIs and resources to help the public understand these infections and take measures to safeguard their own health.

NHSN 2018 Criteria for SSIs

The CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Patient Safety Component includes surveillance methods to identify and track procedure-associated infections, such as SSIs.

Surveillance of surgical patients can occur in any procedural setting. Learn about the 2018 SSI criteria to improve your performance of SSI surveillance. Read more.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Surgical Site Infections. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/hai/ssi/ssi.html. Accessed on: February 9, 2018.

In Partnership with

SSI Surveillance Webinar

How to do a lot with a little:

SSI Surveillance in ASCs

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

9–10 a.m. PT

As part of a project funded by CMS to help reduce SSIs in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG) invites you to attend a webinar discussion on how to conduct SSI surveillance in the ASC setting. Two representatives from Reagan Street Surgery Center in Los Alamitos, California will be the featured speakers.

Webinar Objectives:

Learn the bundle components needed to reduce SSIs in ASCs.
Describe the 2018 NHSN SSI criteria.
Learn how to conduct SSI surveillance in ASCs.

Speaker: Angela Vassallo, MPH, MS, CIC, FAPIC, HSAG Infection Prevention Specialist

Physician's Corner: Going from Good to Great

SSIs in ASC settings are often difficult to document and quantify. Patients treated at an ASC who develop infections severe enough to require hospitalization are often managed in facilities that are removed from the freestanding ASC. Although claims data can be used to gauge the number of infections occurring in ASCs, this method often over-estimates the number of infections that occur. Data suggest that SSI rates in the ASC setting range from zero percent for laminectomies to three percent for appendectomies, while the overall rate for all SSIs that occur in ASCs is probably between 0.5 and one percent. This rate, although small, is clinically significant and merits our continued quality improvement efforts to minimize—and in many cases, eliminate—these occurrences. In order to do so, interventions should target two processes that will result in SSI reduction. The first is incorporation of the highest standards and guidelines for infection control practices into the daily care provided in ASCs. The second involves enhanced communication among the healthcare team (physicians, surgeons, pre-operative, operative, and post-operative staff members) in order to identify areas for improvement that will eliminate the most common risk factors that lead to SSIs. ASCs have a good track record when it comes to SSIs.

Our goal is to make sure the record continues to show improvement based on safer care for our patients and meaningful changes in our practices.

Howard Pitluk, MD, MPH, FACS, HSAG Vice President for Medical Affairs & Chief Medical Officer

Owens PL , Barrett ML , Raetzman S , Maggard-Gibbons M , Steiner CA . Surgical site infections following ambulatory surgery procedures. Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA). 2014 Feb 19;311(7):709-16.

Chanu Rhee , MD, Susan S. Huang , MD, MPH, Sandra I. Berríos-Torres , MD, Rebecca Kaganov , BA, Christina Bruce , BA, Julie Lankiewicz , MPH, Richard Platt , MD, MSc, and Deborah S. Yokoe , MD, MP. Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Following Ambulatory Surgery. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2015 Feb; 36(2): 225–228.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Proactive Risk Assessment of Surgical Site Infections in Ambulatory Surgery Centers. AHRQ Publication No. 12-0045-EF, March 2012.

Berrios-Torres, S.I. et al, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 2017. JAMA Surgery, 2017;152(8):784-791. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2017.0904

Tools & Resources

CDC Resources for Patients and Healthcare Providers

The Joint Commission—2018 National Patient Safety Goals for ASCs

The Joint Commission released its 2018 National Patient Safety Goals for ASCs.

The four goals are:

1. Identifying patients correctly

2. Use medicines safely

3. Prevent infections

4. Prevent mistakes in surgery