Infection Control Today Magazine

Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)

Hospital Gown Helps Meet Government Initiative

Each year, approximately 34 million Americans undergo surgery. Millions undoubtedly associate being cold as part of their surgical experience. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says that’s not okay, but for important reasons beyond patient comfort. ...More
November 23, 2010
Posted in News
Hospital Comparison Web Site May Not Help Patients Identify the Best Place to Have High-Risk Surgery

Information available on a government Web site designed to help patients choose high-quality hospitals does not appear to help Medicare beneficiaries identify facilities with better outcomes for high-risk surgeries, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of ...More
October 18, 2010
Posted in News
Study Finds Mixed Results on Effectiveness of Surgical Care Improvement Measures

An analysis of data on adherence to surgical care improvement measures finds that when analyzed as a composite infection-prevention score, the improvement measures were associated with a lower probability of post-operative infection. However, adherence to individual ...More
June 22, 2010
Posted in News
The Essentials of Maintaining Patient Normothermia

Maintaining patient normothermia pre-, peri- and post-operatively is a critical element of preventing surgical site infections and other complications such as metabolic acidosis, cardiovascular effects, increased respiratory distress and surgical bleeding. According to the ...More
February 22, 2010
Posted in Articles
Tools for Surgical Site Infection Prevention

Prevention of surgical site infections (SSIs) is even more important than ever now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is no longer reimbursing healthcare facilities for SSIs regarding several operations. These include SSIs following coronary artery ...More
November 7, 2008
Posted in Articles, Hand Hygiene, PPE & Standard Precautions
Recruitment, Retention and Respect: The Perioperative Nurse Community’s Challenge

ICT sat down with Mary Jo Steiert, RN, BSN, CNOR, outgoing president of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), to discuss the challenges and rewards of working in perioperative nursing. Q: What have you enjoyed about serving as AORN president? A: It’s ...More
March 1, 2008
Posted in Articles
Reducing Surgical Site Infections

By definition, a surgical site infection (SSI) is an infection that develops within 30 days after an operation or within one year if an implant was placed and the infection appears to be related to the surgery.1 Post-operative SSIs are the most common healthcare-associated ...More
March 1, 2008
Posted in Articles, Hand Hygiene