Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Outpatient Surgery Edition - Infection Control - May 2018

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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made to eliminate them than to reducing SSI rates. There are also indirect costs to consider when assessing the overall impact of SSIs, not the least of which is the reputation of your facility in this era of publicly reported infection rates and healthcare trans- parency. Infection rates are becoming more visible and meaningful to patients, and low performing facilities could lose out on capturing patients whose awareness and sophistication of quality surgical care are driving where they go for surgery. Payers are also denying reim- bursement for preventable SSIs, so there's more incentive than ever to drive down infection rates. What more can be done? Until SSIs are eliminated, we need to reassess why infections continue to persist and start think- ing about the problem and potential solutions in different ways. For example, it's known that smokers have a higher risk of wound complica- tions and post-op infec- tion. We've always attrib- uted that risk to poor cir- culation, but smoking significantly impacts the type of bacteria that grows in the skin, lungs and organs. Smoking might increase the bad bacteria that contributes M A y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 The ScrubVAULT System Can. • Securely stores, dispenses, and tracks staff scrubs • Helps stay compliant with AORN's Guidelines for Surgical Attire • Infection prevention that exceed standards Start smiling today. Call 800-932-7472 or email info@imagefirst.com. Lack of scrub compliance doesn't make anyone smile.

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