Surgical Infection Prevention: Success Stories MINNESOTA Minnesota Hospital Implements Best Practices to Reduce Surgical Site Infections In 2002, Stratis Health , Minnesota ’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, selected St. Mary’s Medical Center (SMMC) in Duluth , Minnesota , to participate in a year-long national Surgical Infection Prevention (SIP) Collaborative. SMMC’s dedication to the collaborative yielded success for the hospital and its successes have been shared with other hospitals in the state to assist in reducing surgical site infections (SSIs). Minor changes in SMMC pre- and post-op order sets for targeted surgical populations resulted in improvements in required best practice recommendations (variable by type of surgery): appropriate selection of surgical prophylactic antibiotics improved by 11% (from 77-100% to 96-100%); timing of pre-op administration of prophylactic antibiotics improved by 7% (from 73-92% to 86-98%); duration of post-op prophylactic antibiotics (discontinued within 24 hours after surgery start time) improved by 40% (from 20-84% to 95-100%). The combined efforts of the participating SIP hospitals, with a combined denominator of 30,000 patients, resulted in a 30% reduction in national surgical site infections (SSI) rates. With an organized approach, using quality improvement methodologies, including the Plan Do StudyAct (PDSA) model for improvement and the collaborative process, SMMC was able to improve compliance with “best practice” recommendations designed to reduce the risk of SSIs in the target populations. Results of the national SIP Collaborative data demonstrate that the implementation of “best practice” recommendations, ensuring “the right care for every patient every time,” can reduce national SSIs rates to the lowest level possible. For information contact: Jeff Walkup, Senior Communications Specialist, Stratis Health at jwalkup@mnqio.sdps.org or 952-853-8549. This material was prepared by Stratis Health, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Minnesota , under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents do not necessarily reflect CMS policy.

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