Adherence to a standardized infection reduction bundle decreases surgical site infections after colon surgery: a retrospective cohort study on 526 patients

BACKGROUND: Colon surgical site infections (SSI) are detrimental to patient safety and wellbeing. To achieve clinical excellence, our hospital set to improve patient safety for those undergoing colon surgery. Our goal was to implement a perioperative SSI prevention bundle for all colon surgeries to reduce colon surgery SSI rates. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study evaluated the impact of implementing a perioperative SSI prevention bundle in patients undergoing colon surgery at Banner University Medical Center - Tucson. We compared SSI rates between the Pre- (1/1/2016 to 12/31/2016) and post-bundle (1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017) cohorts using a chi-square test. RESULTS: In total, we included 526 consecutive patients undergoing colon surgery in our study cohort; 277 pre-bundle and 249 post-bundle implementation. The unadjusted SSI rates were 8.7 % and 1.2 %, pre- and post-bundle, respectively. Our CMS reportable standard infection rate decreased by 85.4 % from 3.08 to 0.45 after implementing our SSI prevention bundle. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a standardized colon SSI prevention bundle reduces the overall 30-day colon SSI rates and national standardized infection rates. We recommend implementing colon SSI reduction bundles to optimize patient safety and minimize colon surgical site infections.