Clinical Practice Guidelines for Surgical Infection Issues - Essay Example

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Surgical Infection Issues Clinical Practice Guidelines on Surgical Infection Issues Surgical infection is defined as an infection, which occurs following a surgical operation. Any surgical operation must involve a cut through mucous membrane or skin. Surgical infections following surgical operations are normally classified as space/organ, deep incisional or superficial. This classification is based upon the body or tissue part involved in the operation. Surgical infections are recognized as one of the most common Medicare-related infections. These infections cause an increase in mortality and morbidity rate, leading to a prolonged hospitalization. They are also a major cause for hospital readmissions, hence increased costs of healthcare. To reduce surgical infections, a realistic and systematic approach must be employed. In view of this, Clinical Practice Guidelines have been developed to assist Medicare professionals to eradicate post-surgery infections. Purpose The purpose for surgical infections clinical practice guidelines is to introduce proper healthcare guidelines to be followed by the healthcare practitioners so as to eradicate post –surgery infections. It will also serve to educate the general community on how to reduce infections which occur after surgical operations. Scope The Clinical Practice Guidelines are aimed at helping Medicare personnel with management and assessment infections following surgical operations. The guidelines are suitable for use by person who has experienced surgical infections of different causes. The scope of these guides does not cover those infections, which occur following neuro-surgeries, and accidents. These guidelines will be of help p to various healthcare personnel, such as neurologists, physiatrists, counselors, occupational therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and nurses. These Healthcare Practice Guidelines bring together several recommendations on Medicare interventions to prevent complications and adversative occurrences in patients who are undergoing surgical operations. For the definition of clinical surgery, these Medicare guidelines have strictly followed conventionally-accepted measures. They recognize surgical operations as interventions conducted in surgery rooms, and as an operation which involve incision, excision, suturing or manipulation of the body tissue and that which requires some kind of anæsthesia (local-regional, local, general or sedative) and analgæsia so as to properly manage pains caused by the interventions. The target group of these Clinical Practice Guidelines is any adult who is just about to undergo a surgical operation. This excludes emergency surgery. Recommendations that are included in the Clinical Practice Guidelines include the most prevailing clinical situations. The targeted audience includes all Medicare professionals who conduct activities in a surgery room. These include anæsthetists, surgeons, and nursing staff. These Guidelines cover the questions related to measures undertaken to minimize, in the whole perioperative procedures, mortality and morbidity associated with surgical operations, or the strategies put in place to improve surgical safety and to minimize preventable adverse events. The Guidelines do not consist of any recommendations about the organization of health services; the recommendations are focused on the healthcare aspects of perioperative procedures. Some of the healthcare aspects covered in these Clinical Practice Guidelines is consulted in other similar documents that, due to their high- level of methodological rigor and clear presentations, have been outlined. Objectives The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Surgical brings forward recommendations based on the outcomes of scientific literature so as encourage the application of the healthcare strategies and interventions with the intention of minimizing complications following surgical operations. On the points where there is inadequate literature on which to derive recommendations, the points of best practices have been properly set out. The main objectives of these Clinical Practice Guidelines are to giver recommendations that will enable avoiding or improving severe events in surgical operations, and also promoting a culture of surgical operation safety. These are achieved by an extensive coverage of the common facets of the perioperative procedures, with emphasis on averting surgical complications. Through this, the guidelines deal with the avoidance of surgical wounds infections, the use of anti-biotic prophylaxis, and prevention of cardio-vascular adversarial events and thromboembolic diseases. The guides also cover the aspects of maintaining normothermia, blood transfusion, and anæsthesia. Questions to be answered 1. What are the major inventions for minimizing the risk of post-surgery infection? 2. What is the efficacy of irrigating wounds as a way of minimizing post-surgery infections? 3. What are the most effective means for wound closure so as to enhance the healing process? Rigor of Development Development of these Clinical Practice Guidelines was done by a competent a team consists of clinicians with wide experience in surgical operations, as well as past-experience in developing Clinical Practice Guidelines. The team members were recruited in a manner to ensure adequate and sufficient representation of virtually all the healthcare professions, geographical location and domain of expertise. In regard to Medicare professions, a wide range of fields of study including physical therapy, emergency medicine, occupational therapy, neurology, rehabilitation and physical medicine, radiography, psychology, and psychiatry were represented. In addition, relevant stakeholders were also involved through their representatives. Individuals with experience in cognitive, physical, affective symptoms and diagnosis, outcomes measurement and quality of life assessment all took part in the guidelines development process. Similarly, the panel also consisted of personnel with expertise in the motor vehicle accidents, sports and military fields. The Evaluation of Clinical Practice Guidelines and adaptation cycle was used as a prototype for development. The very first step was to search for and thoroughly review the existing guidelines related to surgical infections. This was done in a bid to come up with excellent recommendations that could be used to reduce complications following surgical operations. An all-inclusive search for the existing Clinical Practice Guidelines and recommendations that are already published was done. This was carried out using bibliographic databases such as National Guidelines Clearing House, Cochrane Library, general web search, and searches of relevant organization websites These were thoroughly screened, and the clinical guidelines were found to be more than twenty years old. Special attention was paid to the study design, with the greatest weight given to controlled, randomized, double-blind research studies. There is a very limited number of sufficiently powered randomized trials, evaluating the effectiveness of anti-microbialProphylaxis in surgeries. Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines included a consideration of the following characteristics: reliability, validity, flexibility, clinical applicability, multidisciplinary nature, and clarity. The available scientific literature recommends that the recommendations of the Clinical Practice Guidelines to be updated each and every three years .CPG update working group. Where applicable, the electronic version of the guidelines should be updated more frequently. Recommendations The clinicians gathered at a conference where they discussed the methodological factors vital to the development of evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines. They were presented with the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument for rating scores for the surgical infections guidelines. The literature review results and the summary of recommendations were based on the evidence extracted from the current healthcare guidelines. The recommendations were then listed as shown in the appendix. Implementation The Healthcare team has developed CPG implementation strategies to improve Medicare across the population. There is a sub-committee formed to evaluate and see a full implementation of the guidelines within the designated time. The barriers to guideline implementation include healthcare workers reluctance to adopt the changes; increased cost as a result of new surgical requirements and insufficient funds to be used in training healthcare personnel; rocedures, multiple clinical settings, among other challenges. Evaluation process will involve a pilot testing of the guidelines’ recommendations. The feedback from the clinicians and the patients during the first phase of implementation will inform necessary updates of the guidelines. Conclusion The Clinical Practice Guidelines are majorly aimed at filling a gap in healthcare delivery and also to serve as a fundamental resource for healthcare practitioners who deal with surgical operations. They are intended to reduce infections following surgical operations. The guidelines are designed so as to meet the international standards. References Fong, I. (2011). Emerging issues and controversies in infectious disease. , Springer Science & Business Media. Fry, D. (2012). Surgical infections. , JP Medical Ltd. Gruendemann, B. J., & Mangum, S. S. (2009). Infection prevention in surgical settings. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. Norton, J., Barie, P. S., Bollinger, R. R., Chang, A. E., Lowry, S., Mulvihill, S. J., . . Thompson, R. W. (2013). Surgery: Basic science and clinical evidence. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media. Read More