Millions of healthcare-associated infections occur annually in acute care hospitals in the U.S., costing billions of dollars in excess medical costs and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. One common type of HAI is the surgical site infection.
Here are 10 things hospital CFOs should know about SSIs. (See also 10 things CFOs should know about catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections and MRSA.)
1. An SSI is an infection that happens after surgery affecting the part of the body where the surgery was performed. Some SSIs are superficial skin infections, while others are more serious and involve tissue under the skin or organs, according to the CDC.
2. SSIs account for 31 percent of all HAIs in hospitalized patients. An estimated 157,000 surgical site infections were associated with inpatient surgeries in 2011.[1]
3. These infections can be deadly. When looking at the combined mortality rate for all measured HAIs, SSIs represent 8 percent (whereas CLABSIs represent 31 percent, for instance). [2]
4. SSIs make up 29 percent of the excess costs in U.S. hospitals associated with all HAIs (whereas CLABSIs represent 36 percent of excess costs in U.S. hospitals, for instance).2
5. The excess cost of an SSI per patient is $20,800. An SSI will also be even more costly financially if MRSA is present — the excess cost of one such infection is $42,000.2
6. Part of that excess cost comes from the increased length of stay for a patient with an SSI. When an SSI occurs, it adds 11.2 days to the average length of stay for a patient. 2
7. SSIs can also raise costs through readmissions. The most common reason for unplanned hospital readmissions is an SSI, according to a recent study in JAMA.
8. SSI rates are part of CMS' Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, meaning that if a hospital has a high rate of SSIs, as well as other HACs, like CAUTIs or CLABSIs, it can face a 1 percent reduction in Medicare payments as part of the program.
9. SSIs can be prevented, and healthcare providers have made some progress in this area in recent years. According to the "National and State Healthcare-associated Infection Progress Report" released by the CDC this year, there was a 19 percent decrease in SSIs related to 10 select procedures between 2008 and 2013.
10. There are several free or low-cost patient safety tools to help clinicians prevent SSIs. Find some here.
[1] CDC. "Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Event. April 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/PDFs/pscManual/9pscSSIcurrent.pdf
[2] Becker's Hospital Review. Patient Shield Companies. May 12, 2015. The True Cost of HAIs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyKhmeFeL8