Page 167 - Assurance of Sterility for Sensitive Combination Products and Materials

Preventing health care associated infections 149

acute, non-purulent inflammation is encountered including necrotic
tissue without evidence of purulent drainage, e.g., dry gangrene.
4. Dirty or infected. Include old traumatic wounds with devitalized tissue
and existing clinical infection or perforated viscera. Infection was al-
ready present at the time of surgery.
SSIs are further classified by the type of infection that is present.
1. Superficial incisional. These infections occur within 30 days after the sur-
gery and involve only skin and subcutaneous tissue.
2. Deep incisional. Infection occurs within 30–90 days after the surgical pro-
cedures and involves deep soft tissues of the incision, e.g., fascial and
muscle layers.
a. Organ/space SSIs. Infection occurs within 30–90 days after the surgi-
cal procedure and the infection involves any part of the body deeper
than the facial/muscle layers that are opened or manipulated during
the surgical procedure.
The impact that an SSI can have is significant. An SSI can increase the
patient LOS and can result in a significant impact on the cost of care for
the patient. Data suggest that hospitals should expect costs to decrease and
revenue to increase as SSIs are reduced [14].

6.5 Preventing HAIs

Many steps can be taken to prevent an HAI from occurring. Improving
reporting and surveillance systems will enable the HCF to know if im-
provement is being made in preventing HAIs. It is important to ensure that
the core components for infection control are in place. This includes use
of standard precautions, particularly hand hygiene. It is also important to
ensure that staff is educated in appropriate infection control practices for
the procedures that they perform. Once educated, the staff needs to be held
accountable for following correct procedures. In addition, it is important
to involve the patients, families, and visitors in using basic infection control
practices and in reporting problems.
6.5.1 WHO safe surgery saves lives initiative

“Safe Surgery Saves Lives” is the second global patient safety challenge ini-
tiative started by the World Health Organization. The initiative defines a
core set of safety standards for surgery to address the problems that com-
plications of surgical care has become a major cause of death, disability,
and prolonged illnesses. Avoidable surgical complications account for a