Study: AHRQ Program Helps Hawaiian Hospitals Cut SSI Rate

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found that surgical site infections (SSI) in Hawaiian patients undergoing colorectal operations dropped by 61% in less than two years after participating in a surgical safety program.

Between January 2013 and June 2015, all hospitals across Hawaii participated in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Safety Program for Surgery. The 15-hospital collaborative were part of an AHRQ-funded effort to improve surgical care across the country. The study was conducted by researchers from John Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Baltimore; University of Hawaii, Honolulu; and University of California, San Francisco.

The study sought to reduce colorectal SSIs and improve hospital safety culture by implementing clinical interventions including chlorhexidine wash before procedures, proper use of antibiotics, and standardized postsurgical debriefings. Two years after the project began, the study found that the colorectal SSI rate for the hospitals dropped from 12.08% to 4.63%.

“With this collaborative, we created a platform that allowed diverse types of hospitals to come together and accelerate learning and change,” said lead study author Della M. Lin, MD, MS, an anesthesiologist in the surgery department at the University of Hawaii, in a release. “By not working in silos, we were able to accelerate the reduction in surgical site infections faster and perhaps more effectively than hospitals could do by themselves.”

The study also found that safety culture improved in 10 of 12 categories as measured by the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Areas that improved include teamwork across units, communication openness, and overall perception of patient safety.