Statewide safety program sharply reduces colorectal SSIs

Editor's Note

A Hawaii statewide collaborative for surgical patient safety successfully reduced colorectal surgical site infections (SSIs) and improved patient safety culture, finds this study.

Between January 2013 and June 2015, Hawaii’s 15 hospitals implemented the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) in addition to their own customized interventions.

Two years after the start of the project, colorectal SSI rates decreased from 12.08% to 4.63%, for a 61.7% reduction. At the same time, safety culture improved in 10 of 12 domains measured by the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, for an improvement of more than 5%.

Instead of working in isolation, the program creates a space for all hospitals in the state to work with each other for more powerful results, the authors say.