CDC, National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
The Patient Safety Component includes five modules that focus on events associated with medical devices, surgical procedures, antimicrobial agents used during healthcare, multidrug resistant organisms, and Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
NHSN subject matter experts have created training videos for 2021 NHSN updates. Recorded presentations cover the following topics:
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Interactive web-based application that was created to innovatively display data collected through CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network), and other sources. It offers enhanced data visualizations on Antibiotic Resistance, Use, and Stewardship datasets as well as Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) data.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP)
In recognition of health care-associated infections (HAIs) as an important public health and patient safety issue, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) convened the Federal Steering Committee for the Prevention of Health Care-Associated Infections (originally called the HHS Steering Committee, but was changed to reflect the addition of agencies outside of HHS). The Steering Committee’s charge is to coordinate and maximize the efficiency of prevention efforts across the federal government. Members of the Steering Committee include clinicians, scientists, and public health leaders representing:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
National Action Plans are developed with expert input to provide a framework for collaboration among Government and non-Government entities toward large goals that have significant impact on the Nation’s health.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Provides information on the basic principles and interventions recommended for the prevention of Clostridioides (formerly known as Clostridium) difficile infection (CDI) in acute care facilities. The strategies are intended to facilitate implementation of CDI prevention efforts by state and local health departments, quality improvement organizations, hospital associations, and healthcare facilities. Core strategies for the prevention of CDI in acute care facilities include:
1. Isolate & Initiate Contact Precautions
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
The purpose of this project was to explore opportunities for enhancing the detection and surveillance of inpatient-acquired surgical site infections (SSIs) for four target procedures—herniorrhaphy, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), and hip and knee arthroplasty (including primary total arthroplasty, primary hemiarthroplasty, and revision procedures). Four delivery systems came together in order to provide the most representative results and generalizable tools. Collaborating delivery systems include Denver Health (a safety-net hospital located in Denver, CO), Intermountain Healthcare (a large, nonprofit, integrated delivery system based in Salt Lake City, UT), and the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center (a VAMC hospital located in Salt Lake City); representativeness was further extended by including the Vail Valley Medical Center (Vail, CO), a Denver Health partner. A major focus of the project was to test the usefulness of computer algorithms that could alert infection control specialists to patients likely to have surgical site infections on the basis of retrospective analysis of electronic medical records, laboratory test results, and patient demographics.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
The Toolkit To Promote Safe Surgery helps perioperative and surgical units in hospitals identify opportunities to improve care and safety practices and implement evidence-based interventions to prevent surgical site infections. The toolkit has evidence-based, practical resources that reflect the real-world experiences of the frontline clinicians and subject matter experts who participated in the AHRQ Safety Program for Surgery, a national implementation project in which approximately 200 hospitals participated and successfully reduced surgical site infections. It builds on AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) and the core CUSP toolkit by providing specific tools focused on the surgical setting to help hospitals reduce surgical site infections and other complications. This toolkit focuses on surgery in hospitals
PubMed (nih.gov)
In colorectal surgery, the composition of the most effective bundle for prevention of surgical site infections (SSI) remains uncertain. We performed a meta-analysis to identify bundle interventions most associated with SSI reduction.
This material was prepared by The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. It is redistributed by the IPRO HQIC, a Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The purpose of this toolkit is to lead hospitals through the key elements that are essential in building a successful team to reduce surgical site infections (SSI). The toolkit will provide information regarding how to develop a team, assess work practices, identify gaps, develop an action plan, implement changes, and evaluate success.
World Health Organization
The 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) Global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) are evidence-based and unique in that they are the first global guidelines of this sort, are based on systematic reviews and present additional information in support of actions to improve practice. They were developed by international experts adhering to WHO’s Guideline Development Process and overall aim to achieve standardization.
AORN
The AORN Comprehensive Surgical Checklist can be downloaded and customized to meet a facility’s needs. The checklist includes key safety checks as outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist and The Joint Commission Universal Protocol. It is designed for use in all types of facilities (eg, hospital ORs, ambulatory surgery settings, physician offices)
(AHRQ) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
This tool will help your safety program team understand lapses in infection prevention processes that may have contributed to the surgical site infection case. It can help your team identify practice patterns and inconsistencies in practice, so you can more easily pinpoint opportunities for intervention
Pubmed Article
Infections at the surgical site continue to occur in as many as 20% of elective colon resection cases. Methods to reduce these infections are inconsistently applied. Surgical site infection (SSI) is the result of multiple interactive variables including the inoculum of bacteria that contaminate the site, the virulence of the contaminating microbes, and the local environment at the surgical site. These variables that promote infection are potentially offset by the effectiveness of the host defense. Reduction in the inoculum of bacteria is achieved by appropriate surgical site preparation, systemic preventive antibiotics, and use of mechanical bowel preparation in conjunction with the oral antibiotic bowel preparation. Intraoperative reduction of hematoma, necrotic tissue, foreign bodies, and tissue dead space will reduce infections. Enhancement of the host may be achieved by perioperative supplemental oxygenation, maintenance of normothermia, and glycemic control. These methods require additional research to identify optimum application. Uniform application of currently understood methods and continued research into new methods to reduce microbial contamination and enhancement of host responsiveness can lead to better outcomes.
