Effect of nurse staffing level, length of work experience on HAIs
Editor's Note This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed. The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure…
SSI trends in community hospitals
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network Surveillance Team, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, find that surgical site infection (SSI) rates did not decrease in community hospitals from 2013 to 2018. SSI data was collected from patients having 26 common surgical…
Cluster of mycobacteria infections after total joints traced to OR nurse
Editor's Note This investigation by the Kentucky Department for Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of eight cases of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) infections in a Kentucky hospital after total joint replacement procedures found that the presence of a particular OR nurse was significantly associated with the…
Rates, risk factors, costs of SSIs after TKA
Editor's Note This study led by the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, examines the longitudinal rates, risk factors, and costs of superficial and deep incisional surgical site infections (SSIs) after primary and revision total knee arthroplasties (TKAs). A total of 26,097 primary TKA patients and 3,663 revision TKA patients were…
Session: Infection Prevention Surveillance and Data Collection in the ASC
Editor's Note Only 26 states require the reporting of surgical site infections (SSIs) to either the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) or the state, Lisa Berus, MSN, MEd, RN, CAIP, CNAMB, CASSPT, senior director at SCA Health, explained in this two-part breakout session.…
Study: Better OR ventilation linked to lower SSI rates
Editor's Note This Swiss study finds that better OR ventilation properties, as assessed with a new ventilation index, are associated with lower rates of surgical site infections (SSIs) in orthopedic, spine, and cardiac procedures. Researchers calculated a ventilation index with higher values reflecting less turbulent air displacement instead of comparing…
Developing a surveillance program for SSIs in ASCs
The CDC’s healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevalence survey estimated that 110,800 surgical site infections (SSIs) were connected with inpatient procedures in 2015. As of 2020, Advancing Surgical Care reported that there are around 5,700 Medicare-certified ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) in the US. Of these, only 6 states require ASCs to use…
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