Prevention of Surgical Infections
Preventing infections following surgery is a measure of care quality reflecting how quickly and how well patients recover from surgery.
Since July 1, 2003, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has been measuring its performance in preventing infections after surgery. Three key elements are measured:
- Giving the patient a preventive antibiotic within an hour of when a surgical incision is made
- Selecting the most effective antibiotic
- Discontinuing the preventive antibiotic within 24 hours of surgery
The table below shows how Cedars-Sinai performs on these measures in comparison to the top 10% of U.S. hospitals.
| Surgical Infection Prevention Care Quality Measures | Cedars-Sinai (Jan-Mar 2009) | All Hospitals Nationwide (Jan-Dec 2008) |
|
| Top 10% Scored At Least: | Average: | ||
| Preventive antibiotics given within an hour of a surgical incision Percent of surgical patients who are given an antibiotics within one hour of having a surgical incision | 99.8% | 98% | 93% |
| Selection of the most appropriate antibiotic Percent of surgical patients who are given the most appropriate antibiotic for their surgery | 99.1% | 99% | 97% |
| Discontinuation of preventive antibiotics within 24 hours of surgery Percent of patients who had surgery whose preventive antibiotics were discontinued within 24 hours of surgery | 97% | 97% | 90% |
