Quality Improvement Project Paper

Surgical Site Infections are related to delayed healing, increased patient morbidity and mortality, increased hospital stay, readmission and facility costs. Anderson et al. (2014) explains that these infections extend a patients hospital stay on average of 7 to 11 days and cost roughly $3.5 to $10 billion annually in healthcare expenditures according to the consumer price index for inpatient hospital services. Most of these costs are not reimbursed by insurance because they fall within the 30-day readmission rate. Shepard et al. (2013) suggest that due to the lack of these reimbursed funds, hospitals have a financial incentive to reduce SSI's. A focus on education and patient understanding must be provided to the patient as well as the responsibility of continued care. The RN's understanding of this research can help in developing effective planning and quality improvement to reduce the incidence of SSIs with patients in a hospital setting.
Project Charter
This Quality Improvement project is designed to provide data showing the need for further …show more content…
This can be accomplished by educating and teaching the patient to be proactive in keeping and maintaining clean areas around the surgical site during hospitalization. Patients need to have meticulous hygiene. Washing their hands before and after they touch the site. Watch for localized pain, redness, swelling and drainage that have changed or worsened since the surgery. Most SSI's happen within a week following the procedure. Identifying if the patient has diabetes, elderly, smokers or immunocompromised. These patients need further education on delayed healing and increasing nutritional habits (Schub & Smith, 2016). Consults by professional nutritionist to educate the patient on having adequate fluid, calorie and protein intake for