Since November 2019 we have been running a collaborative project across the West of England to reduce the incidence of surgical site infection after elective colorectal surgery.
Surgical site infection (SSI) refers to wound infections following invasive surgical procedures. SSI is a major healthcare burden accounting for 14.5% of all hospital acquired infections in the UK and an increase in associated costs, ranging in estimates from 34-226%. It is also a significant cause of patient morbidity, including increased length of hospital stay, readmission, wound dehiscence (reopening), hernia, need for intensive care, as well as death.
The aim of our PreciSSIon project is to reduce surgical site infection after colorectal surgery by 50% by March 2021. To achieve this, the West of England AHSN is supporting the adoption of an SSI bundle by each of the acute trusts in our region.
In June we held an online event for the PreciSSIon collaborative. There was a fantastic turn out from very busy clinical teams, who shared their SSI data and lessons learned from the challenges they have faced so far.
Although we’re in the early days of the project, there are already signs that we are reducing SSI after elective colorectal surgery in all trusts.
The next focus for the project is to ensure that each trust is at least 95% compliant with the four elements of the bundle.
The trusts forming the PreciSSIon collaborative are:
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- North Bristol NHS Trust
- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust
Find out more about PreciSSIon here and download the implementation toolkit.
Posted on July 14, 2020
