Credit: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Surgical teams at Cedars-Sinai have reduced surgical site infections by more than 60 percent for patients who undergo colorectal procedures by introducing evidence-based protocols that are easy to follow and relatively low in cost. Surgeons, nurses, operating room staff and patients all collaborated in a quality improvement project that measured surgical site infection rates from March 2011 to March 2012. Several new steps were introduced to guard against infections, and these have now been expanded and standardized throughout the hospital.