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Surgical site infection (SSI) after colon surgery

Why is this measure important?

Colon surgery is a type of medical procedure in which a doctor cuts into the patient’s body for the purpose of fixing or removing diseased or damaged parts of the colon.

Sometimes the area of the body where the surgery takes place can become infected. This is called a surgical site infection (SSI). SSIs can involve the skin, tissues under the skin, organs, or implanted material. These infections can cause serious problems and even death.

Hospital staff members can prevent most SSIs after colon surgery by following the infection control guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hospitals following these safety guidelines will likely have low numbers in this measure.

What does this measure show?

This measure tracks patients who experienced surgical site infection after surgery.

The score for surgical site infection (SSI) after colon surgery is shown as a Standardized Infection ratio (SIR). This ratio is found by comparing the number of SSIs after colon surgery in patients at Northwestern Medicine to a national benchmark.

For this measure, a lower number is better.