Effectiveness of a surgical wound surveillance program
R. E. Condon, W. J. Schulte, M. A. Malangoni and M. J. Anderson-Teschendorf
A five-year surgical would surveillance program included the following
features: (1) observations were made by a trained nurse-surveyor; (2) all
surgical services, without exception, were surveyed; (3) the nurse-surveyor
reported directly to the Chief, Surgical Service; (4) all infected wounds
and all suspected of harboring an infection were observed daily by the
nurse-surveyor; (5) all wounds were inspected on the third and seventh
postoperative days, at hospital discharge, and at a follow-up clinic visit;
and (6) cultures were obtained from all infected wounds. Data concerning
infections for all surgical services were published each month at the
mortality-morbidity conference. The number of wounds closed primarily and
the number of infected wounds were recorded, together with calculations of
wound infection rates by operation class, for each surgical service and for
the whole hospital. During the study, the rate of wound infections
progressively declined. The overall incidence decreased from 3.5% before
the study began to less than 1% at its conclusion.
