The study included Medicare patients who underwent hip arthroplasty in acute-care U.S. hospitals from 2005 through 2007. Researchers used claims codes suggestive of SSI to rank hospitals based on their rates of SSIs after hip arthroplasty. The researchers validated infections at hospitals with the best and worst performance using medical records.
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Results showed that patients who had a hip replacement at a hospital ranked in the worst-performing decile had nearly three times the likelihood of developing an SSI compared with patients at a hospital in the best-performing decile.
The authors concluded that Medicare claims can successfully distinguish between hospitals with high and low SSI rates after hip replacements.
More Articles on SSIs:
Best Practices for Monitoring of Surgical Site Infections: Thoughts From Carla Daley Shehata of Regent Surgical Health
Patient Safety Tool: IHI’s JOINTS Hospital Registry Template
An Early Warning System for Surgical Site Infections: Thoughts from ICNet President and CEO Pat Beyer
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