Surgical Infection Prevention: Success Stories SOUTH CAROLINA Collaborative Efforts Lead to Improvements in Surgical Antibiotic Administrations in South Carolina Teams from 13 hospitals in South Carolina participated in a collaboration that showed significant improvement in surgical antibiotic administration processes on patients undergoing joint replacements and hysterectomies. Between May 2003 and March 2004, participating hospital teams implemented, tested and tracked changes for these patients. With one team representing three hospitals, 11 hospital teams resulted in the participation of this collaboration. Five of the 11 teams showed significant progress, including: The proportion of surgical patients with prophylactic antibiotics discontinued within 24 hours after surgery end time from 10% to 96% The proportion of surgical patients receiving appropriate prophylactic antibiotics increased from 81% to 100% The proportion of surgical patients receiving prophylactic antibiotic within one hour prior to surgical incision increased from 70% to 97% Of these five teams, one reported no surgical infection since July 2003 and another reported no infection since November 2003. As a result of this effort, a Surgical Infection Prevention Community of Practice was established. Members from this group continue to network and share experiences in an informal setting with a common goal of making strides to improve the quality of care provided to surgical patients in South Carolina. The collaborative was facilitated by The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for South Carolina , under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence is continuing to work with hospitals statewide to improve quality of care and to continue to decrease their rates of surgical infection. For more information, contact Melinda Postal, CMR Communications Manager, at (803) 731-8225, ext. 3203, or mpostal@scqio.sdps.org. This material was prepared by the The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for South Carolina , 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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