We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To send content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about sending content to .
To send content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.
Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
Review of health plan administrative data has been shown to be more sensitive than other methods for identifying postdischarge surgical-site infections (SSIs), but there has not been a direct comparison between this method and hospital-based surveillance for all infections, including those diagnosed before discharge. We compared these two methods for identifying SSIs following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures:.
We studied 1,352 CABG procedures performed among members of one health plan from March 1993 through June 1997. Health plan administrative records were reviewed based on claims containing diagnoses or procedures suggestive of infection or outpatient dispensing of antibiotics appropriate for SSI. Hospital-based surveillance information was also reviewed. SSI rates were calculated based on the total events identified by either mechanism.
Postdischarge information was reviewed for 328 (85%) of 388 procedures. SSIs were confirmed in 167 patients (13% overall risk of confirmed SSI; range, 3% to 14% in the 5 hospitals). The overall sensitivity of hospital-based surveillance was 49.7% (83 of 167), and that of health plan data was 71.8% (120 of 167). There was no significant difference among hospitals in the sensitivity of either surveillance mechanism.
Surveillance based on health plan data identified more postoperative infections, including those occurring before discharge, than did hospital-based surveillance. Screening administrative data and pharmacy activity may be an important adjunct to SSI surveillance, allowing efficient comparison of hospital-specific rates. Interpretation of differences among hospitals' infection rates requires case mix adjustment and understanding of variations in hospitals' discharge diagnosis coding practices
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.