{"id":414,"date":"2015-11-12T09:54:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toh.masm.ca\/en\/?p=414"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:45:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:45:04","slug":"surgical-site-infections-cut-nearly-in-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/surgical-site-infections-cut-nearly-in-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgical site infections cut nearly in half"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patient Wendy Alain has had several surgeries over the past 10 years and she\u2019s noticed many improvements at The Ottawa Hospital, including patient warming blankets, caring bedside manners, meeting with the anesthesiologist beforehand, and surgical team members introducing themselves and explaining their part in the surgery. \u201cI was very impressed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Uncontrollable shivering. That\u2019s what Wendy Alain experienced just before previous surgeries, but not last May before her colorectal surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time I had the patient warming blanket,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt made a huge difference. It\u2019s so cozy and it also relaxes you as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients under an anesthetic can\u2019t regulate their body temperature. It drops rapidly, increasing the risk for hypothermia, which increases the risk of infection. But warm bodies can better fight infections. Nearly all patients having surgery of an hour or longer now receive a warming blanket.<\/p>\n

The special blankets are one of about 60 changes made to reduce surgical site infections \u2013 and the changes are clearly having an effect. The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s average infection rate has been cut nearly in half \u2013 from 4.8 percent in 2013 to 2.8 percent in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means about 285 fewer patients per year are getting infections due to their surgery,\u201d said Dr. Husein Moloo, Alain\u2019s surgeon. \u201cTreating patients with infections costs an average of $7,786 extra, so these changes are saving the hospital about $2.2 million a year, conservatively. And, we\u2019re improving the quality of care for our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though this was the most complicated and longest surgery I\u2019ve had, it was the best experience,\u201d said Alain. \u201cI healed the quickest and it probably had a lot to do with the new things they\u2019re trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all changes are necessarily visible to patients, but they still benefit.<\/p>\n

During Alain\u2019s seven-hour surgery, an automatic timer on the anesthesiologist\u2019s computer went off at the 3.5-hour mark, signalling the surgical team that it was time to redose with antibiotics, to further help fight infection.<\/p>\n

After her surgery, Alain had the new antimicrobial dressings that are changed for the first time 72 hours after surgery, instead of 24 hours after.<\/p>\n

Better communications among all health-care providers \u2013 in the Operating Room and on units \u2013 also leads to better patient outcomes, including reduced infections. \u201cAll the surgeons, the anesthesiologist, the nurses \u2013 they all introduced themselves and explained their part in the surgery,\u201d said Alain. \u201cIt was a whole team and I was very impressed. I could ask questions. You felt like you were in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years of steadily working to reduce TOH\u2019s rate of surgical site infections is paying off,\u201d said Dr. David Schramm, who leads the committee overseeing the changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patient Wendy Alain has had several surgeries over the past 10 years and she\u2019s noticed many improvements at The Ottawa Hospital, including patient warming blankets, caring bedside manners, meeting with the anesthesiologist beforehand, and surgical team members introducing themselves and explaining their part in the surgery. \u201cI was very impressed.\u201d Uncontrollable shivering. That\u2019s what Wendy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}