Abstract
Background
According to ECDC, Surgical Site Infections (SSI) are the second most frequent type of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) in Europe and in USA, and 9.5% of colon surgical procedures develop SSI. SSIs are associated with prolonged hospital stay, higher costs burden and higher attributable morbidity and mortality. Interventional programs can reduce the risk of SSI. Care bundles are a complex of EBM-based interventions on a specific population and setting, in order to improve clinical outcomes. A bundle is successful only if all its items are properly applied, through the ‘all-or-none’ method. Application of a bundle does not exclude other good clinical practices.
Methods
Data from 37 hospitals participating in the Regional SSI surveillance of Piedmont (Italy) were collected from 2012 to 2017. In hospitals applying the bundle, 4 bundle items had to be used in all the procedures: Temperature control, preoperative shower, trichotomy, antimicrobial prophylaxis. 6909 patients undergoing colon surgery were followed for 30 post-operative days to detect SSI events (According to ECDC 2016 Protocol). For some procedures, compliance to Bundle item application was ≤ 75%.
Results
6909 procedures were assessed: 3631 with no bundle application and 3278 with bundle application; in particular 974 were compliant to all bundle items (100%), while 2304 were compliant to 3 items or less (≤ 75%). We report a SSI risk of 11.20% for surgical procedures performed without bundle application; this risk decreases to 5.63% (OR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0,36-0,67; p < 0.001) when compliance to bundle is 100%. When compliance to bundle is ≤ 75% instead of 100%, SSI risk raises to 8.47% (OR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.07-2.04; p = 0.002).
Conclusions
Care bundle, if properly applied, is associated to statistically significant reduction of SSI rate (51%) for colon surgical procedures. Bundle programs should be encouraged and improved in hospitals to reduce healthcare costs and burden of HAIs.
Key messages
The use of the 4-item Surgical Care Bundle is associated to statistically significant reduction (51%) of SSI rate for colon surgical procedures. Surgical Care Bundle programs should be recommended and improved in every hospital to reduce healthcare costs and burden of HAIs.