To compare risk of surgical site infection (SSI) following cesarean delivery between women covered by Medicaid and private health insurance.

Retrospective cohort.

Cesarean deliveries covered by Medicaid or private insurance and reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and state inpatient discharge databases by hospitals in California (2011–2013).

Deliveries reported to NHSN and state inpatient discharge databases were linked to identify SSIs in the 30 days following cesarean delivery, primary payer, and patient and procedure characteristics. Additional hospital-level characteristics were obtained from public databases. Relative risk of SSI by primary payer primary payer was assessed using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for patient, procedure, and hospital characteristics, accounting for facility-level clustering.

Of 291,757 cesarean deliveries included, 48% were covered by Medicaid. SSIs were detected following 1,055 deliveries covered by Medicaid (0.75%) and 955 deliveries covered by private insurance (0.63%) (unadjusted odds ratio, 1.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–1.3; P < .0001). The adjusted odds of SSI following cesarean deliveries covered by Medicaid was 1.4 (95% CI, 1.2–1.6; P < .0001) times the odds of those covered by private insurance.

In this, the largest and only multicenter study to investigate SSI risk following cesarean delivery by primary payer, Medicaid-insured women had a higher risk of infection than privately insured women. These findings suggest the need to evaluate and better characterize the quality of maternal healthcare for and needs of women covered by Medicaid to inform targeted infection prevention and policy.

As the US population ages, the number of hip and knee arthroplasties is expected to increase. Because surgical site infections (SSIs) following these procedures contribute substantial morbidity, mortality, and costs, we projected SSIs expected to occur from 2020 through 2030.

We used a stochastic Poisson process to project the number of primary and revision arthroplasties and SSIs. Primary arthroplasty rates were calculated using annual estimates of hip and knee arthroplasty stratified by age and gender from the 2012–2014 Nationwide Inpatient Sample and standardized by census population data. Revision rates, dependent on time from primary procedure, were obtained from published literature and were uniformly applied for all ages and genders. Stratified complex SSI rates for arthroplasties were obtained from 2012–2015 National Healthcare Safety Network data. To evaluate the possible impact of prevention measures, we recalculated the projections with an SSI rate reduced by 30%, the national target established by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Without a reduction in SSI rates, we projected an increase in complex SSIs following hip and knee arthroplasty of 14% between 2020 and 2030. We projected a total burden of 77,653 SSIs; however, meeting the 30% rate reduction could prevent 23,297 of these SSIs.

Given current SSI rates, we project that complex SSI burden for primary and revision arthroplasty may increase due to an aging population. Reducing the SSI rate to the national HHS target could prevent 23,000 SSIs and reduce subsequent morbidity, mortality, and Medicare costs.