A study published in American Journal of Infection Control examined the efficacy of a quality improvement project aimed at improving compliance with national guidelines that recommend intraoperative redosing of prophylactic antibiotics.
The QI project included:
• Education
• Progress reports
• Automated redosing reminders in the anesthesia EHR
Researchers implemented the project at a large hospital and conducted a retrospective, observational study spanning the pre-and post-project period using the intraoperative antibiotic redosing criteria for all surgeries lasting more than four hours.
Researchers studied 13,695 surgical procedures. They found that the project was associated with significant compliance rate improvement, with no significant change in underlying improvement trend.
"Implementation of a multifaceted intervention improved rates of guideline-concordant redosing of intraoperative prophylactic antibiotics," study authors concluded.