NC Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety

NC Safe Surgery

Starting March 2012, participating hospitals will work together in a twelve month, statewide collaborative designed to improve perioperative safety by implementing core, evidence-based interventions within the context of an open learning network. The scope of this initial collaborative will include total hip and knee replacement procedures, providing a focused opportunity to refine tools and processes. This focus was chosen after consideration of surgical volume for hip and knee procedures, prevention opportunities, ability to measure SSIs, and the opportunity to recruit from the majority of the hospitals in the state. Rapid spread to abdominal hysterectomy and colon surgeries is planned as a second phase of this initiative; with spread to all surgical procedures and settings to follow. Registration and pre work activities are planned to begin in November 2011.

This initiative has received the support and endorsement from the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN), Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC-NC), NC Council of Perioperative Nurses (NCCORN), NC Nurses Association (NCNA), and the NC Orthopaedic Association (NCOA).

Collaborative Goals

Collaborative pooled HIP prosthesis SSI rate <0.68% and/or SSI Standardized Infection Ratio <0.9.
Collaborative pooled Knee prosthesis SSI rate <0.32% and/or SSI S.I.R. <0.9.
Collaborative pooled abdominal hysterectomy SSI rate <0.94 and/or SSI S.I.R. <0.9.
Collaborative pooled colon surgery SSI rate <4.2 and/or SSI S.I.R. <0.9.
Reduce post-surgical DVT and PE rates by 25%.
100% of participating units are members of a PSO.

For more information, contact:

Dean Higgins
Project Manager
dhiggins@ncha.org
919-677-4212

James Hayes
Project Coordinator
jhayes@ncha.org
919-677-4140

Laura Maynard
Director, Collaborative Learning
lmaynard@ncha.org
919-677-4121

NC Safe Surgery Collaborative Pre Work

Data Use Agreement
Project Team Roles
OR Personnel Roster
Charter
Culture Assessment Instructions
Culture Survey