Prevention of surgical site infections (Updated)

“The morbidity for 2018 in the US was 157,500 for surgical site infections (SSI), with an estimated mortality of 8,205. 11% of all deaths in intensive care units were associated with SSI. It is a burden for the patient with an additional 11 days of hospitalization for each SSI and a burden to the system with an overall cost of $3.2 billion per year.”1

A collection of 50 PubMed citations has been compiled related to prevention of surgical site infections (SSIs). This material is an update to a 2018 post.

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What strategies can hospital administrations take to alleviate and prevent psychological issues encountered by clinicians on the Covid-19 frontlines?

Clinicians caring for Covid-19 patients have shown multiple signs of stress including anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance.1 Predictors of these adverse effects include young age, low work experience, female gender, heavy workload, working in unsafe settings, and lack of training and social support.2

Issues in COVID-19 care that may provoke these problems include “limited information about COVID-19, unpredictable tasks and challenging practices, insufficient support, concerns about family, and emotional and psychological stress”3, as well as “working in an isolated environment, concerns about personal protective equipment shortage and usage, physical and emotional exhaustion, intensive workload, fear of being infected, and insufficient work experiences with COVID-19.”4

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