Surgical Care Infection Prevention

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Sparks’ Core Measures

SURGICAL CARE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Sparks Health System is pleased to be a participant in the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a national quality partnership of organizations focused on improving surgical care by significantly reducing surgical complications. It is a unique partnership that is proving to be a transformational undertaking in health care. The SCIP goal is to reduce the incidence of surgical complications nationally by 25 percent by the year 2010. The project aims at reducing surgical mortality and morbidity through collaborative efforts.

Sponsor agencies include: American Hospital Association (AHA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the Joint Commission and others.

Medicare and Joint Commission have requested hospitals manage processes related to surgical care and treatment and to collect and submit data pertaining to these processes. Medicare has termed these treatments as ‘Core Measures’ and these prevention techniques and treatments can aid in reducing surgical mortality and morbidity. There’re three categories of prevention and treatment, with specific measures in each category. These are measures include:

Infection Prevention

  • •Prophylactic antibiotic received within 1 hour prior to surgical incision
  • •Prophylactic antibiotic selection consistent with current guidelines
  • •Prophylactic antibiotic discontinued within 24 hours of most surgeries and within 48 hours for bypass/other cardiac surgery
  • •Monitoring serum glucose levels for cardiac surgery
  • •Appropriate hair removal for surgery patients
  • •Monitoring body temperature for colorectal surgery patients within the first hour after leaving the operating room

Cardiac Measures

  • •Ensuring surgical patients on beta blocker therapy prior to admission also receive a beta blocker during the perioperative period

Prevention of Blood Clots (Venous Thromboembolism)

  • •Ensure, that when appropriate, surgical patients have Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis ordered during their admission
  • •Ensure, that when appropriate, surgical patients received VTE prophylaxis within 24 hours prior to surgery to 24 hours after surgery

 To compare Sparks with other healthcare facilities in this region or to learn more about quality measures, you may visit Medicare’s Hospital Compare website by clicking here.