Surgical Infection Prevention Project (SIP)

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• The presence of a surgical infection doubles the incidence of surgical mortality.

• When surgical infections occur, hospital length of stay is increased by 7 days and charges increase by $3,000.

• Surgical infections occur in 2% to 5% of clean, extra-abdominal surgeries and up to 20% of intra-abdominal surgeries.

• A surgical infection increases the chance of an ICU stay by 60%.

The surgical infection project includes infections involving the surgical wound as well as systemic infections such as blood infections that occur following surgery. The surgical infection prevention project was designed in coordination with the CDC. It was selected because of the extraordinary cost in terms of morbidity and mortality associated with these largely preventable infections. The care processes being measured are low-tech and relatively low cost. Unfortunately, the care delivered frequently does not adhere to known best practices.