Surgical Infection Prevention
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 (July - Sept 2011) | All Hospitals Nationwide (July 2010 - June 2011) | |
| Top 10% Scored At Least: | Average: | ||
| Preventive Antibiotics Before Surgery Percent of patients who are given antibiotics with an hour of surgical incision | 99% | 100% | 98% |
| Selection of the Most Appropriate Antibiotic Percent of surgical patients who are given the most appropriate antibiotic for their surgery | 99% | 100% | 98% |
| 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% | 100% | 96% |
An additional measure to prevent post-surgical infection is to discontinue the use of a catheter within two days after surgery. The chart below shows discontinuation rates at Cedars-Sinai compared to the rates for hospitals nationally.
| Surgical Infection Prevention Care Quality Measures | Cedars-Sinai July - Sept 20111) | All Hospitals Nationwide (July 2010 - June 2011) | |
| Top 10% Scored At Least: | Average: | ||
| Discontinuation of Urinary Catheters Within Two Days of Surgery Percent of surgical patients whose urinary catheter was removed within two days of surgery | 98% | 100% | 93% |
