Orthopaedic data collection made simpler

The Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission) has approved an option for district health boards (DHBs) to transition to ‘light surveillance’ for the orthopaedic surgical site infection improvement programme (SSIIP).

The use of ‘light surveillance’ will significantly reduce the number of data fields required to be reported for all surgical procedures included in the programme.

This change is in response to recommendations made by an external evaluation of the SSIIP in which the feedback from the sector showed a preference to reduce time spent on data collection and to have more time to look into the specific cases that resulted in an SSI.

The orthopaedic SSIIP has been a successful national programme since 2011.

Dr Arthur Morris says numerous factors contribute to the risk of SSIs so simplifying the current data collection process will enable DHB teams to perform and analyse (conduct detailed reviews) on their SSI cases.

‘The analyses and actions to mitigate risks identified at each DHB will contribute to the further reduction of the national and local orthopaedic SSI rates.’

A draft tool has been created by a working group organised by the Commission and is available to trial. It can be accessed below.

The Commission is developing ongoing monitoring to ensure that increases in infections are picked up in a timely way.

Feedback will be gathered during periodic training webinars in 2021 and can also be sent to: SSIIP@hqsc.govt.nz.

Related downloads

Draft tool for orthopaedic SSI reviews  (PDF version) (PDF, 242KB)

Draft tool for orthopaedic SSI reviews (electronic version) (PDF, 1.5MB)