Hospital Acquired Surgical Site Infections

[Jolie, BSN]

Are hospital acquired surgical site infections reportable (by mandate) to any government or regulatory agency?

Is there a means for a patient to self-report a hospital acquired surgical site infection, like a website or hotline, similar to the reporting system for vaccine reactions?

Thanks for your expertise!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I don't know about reportable, but be sure you/the patient follows up with the provider. All surgical site infections in my facility result in a deep dive- was the appropriate antibiotic coverage used, what was the wound class to begin with, did anything happen during the procedure (like when we threw an ioban over the thoracotomy patient with an open incision who coded in the middle of surgery so we could flip supine to do CPR), things like that.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Not sure if a patient or family could report as it would be difficult. You would have to know how it was classified. Depending on how it was cultured, blood, respiratory, surgical site, etc. If there is something that is suspected to be a surgical site infection a root cause analysis is done to determine whether it was cuased just due to the nature of the surgery or due to something else. Every hospital is different in how they perform the cause.