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The Impact of Postdischarge Infection on Surgical Wound Infection Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

K. Reimer ,
C. Gleed  and
L.E. Nicolle
K. Reimer
Affiliation:
Office of Infection Control, Calgary General Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
C. Gleed
Affiliation:
Office of Infection Control, Calgary General Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
L.E. Nicolle*
Affiliation:
Office of Infection Control, Calgary General Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
*
Infection Control Unit, MS-675D, Health Sciences Centre, 820 Sherbrooke Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3A 1R9, Canada
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Abstract

We undertook a study of postdischarge infections to assess the reliability of a surgical wound surveillance program in a 930-bed teaching hospital. During a six-month period, a subset of operations performed each day was randomly selected and patients interviewed by telephone one month postsurgery using a standard set of questions. The infection rate for all patients contacted directly postdischarge was 5.4%, whereas the surgical wound infection rate determined for all procedures through the standard hospital program was 1.5%. For day-surgery patients, who are not routinely followed in the hospital surveillance program, 8 (7.8%) of 103 patients contacted had infection. Thus, the overall surgical infection rate determined in this study was over three times higher than that calculated using standard surveillance. A reliable method for identifying postdischarge wound infections is necessary to ensure accurate surgical wound infection rates.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 8 , Issue 6 , June 1987 , pp. 237 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1987

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References

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