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Washington hospitals reduce surgical infection rates

Infection Control Monitor, April 1, 2004

Eleven Washington state hospitals successfully reduced their surgical infection rates by working as part of a collective for the past year.

The Surgical Infection Prevention Collaborative Northwest focused on proper administration of antibiotics, along with measures such as clipping rather than shaving the surgical site, and maintenance of proper body temperature before, during, and after surgery.

Qualis Health of Seattle, a nonprofit healthcare quality improvement company, managed and provided technical and professional assistance to the hospitals under a contract with Medicare. Participating Washington hospitals will meet with other hospitals from Oregon and Idaho today to share their results at an "outcomes congress" in Seattle.

Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue made the following progress:

·        <P>100% of all surgical cases received the appropriate selection of prophylactic antibiotic

·        75% of patients with prophylactic antibiotics were begun in the appropriate one-hour period before surgical incision

·        97% of surgery patients who received prophylactic antibiotics had those medicines discontinued within the appropriate 24-hour period after surgery

·        72% of surgical patients had a temperature greater than 36 degrees Celsius

·        88% had hair removed at the surgical site without shaving

·        The number of cases between surgical infections has more than doubled from 40 to 91 cases

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