Surgeons are responsible for many patients in the hospital. Data shows that nearly 10 million in-patients undergo surgical procedures every year (AHRQ, 2019). Surgeons are key stakeholders in programs and initiatives geared towards reducing surgical site infections (SSIs). These are a leading cause of readmission in the hospitals and a frequent source of morbidity; thus, mitigating their occurrence is a worthy undertaking.
SSIs are a common complication in about 4% of patients who have undergone surgeries. SSIs are defined as infections arising from operative procedures occurring near or at the surgical incision site within 90 days of prosthetic surgery or within 30 days of other operative procedures (AHRQ, 2019). Surgeons who are key stakeholders because of their surgical procedures' involvement are impacted by high numbers of SSIs ( CDC, 2012) . Whether surgeons have a private practice or are employed in hospitals, they a re likely to face challenges arising from increased SSIs . Policies in pl ace require that SSIs are reported to the CDC's National healthcare safety network. Here, the data is documented and publicly reported on the Medicare hospital compare website ( Bratzler, 2013 ). Surgeons are, therefore, likely to suffer in the event of an elevated increase in SSI. Patients and their family members are likely to research t he surgeon's results in SSI cases. Surgeons with a high incidence of SSIs who h ave private practice may experience problems such as not getting clients.
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In the hospital setting, surgeons will suffer from having elevated SSI cases as patients may refuse to get their surgeries done by them. They may request a surgeon change to get the best performing surgeons in fear of developing SSI post-operation. Moreover, surgeons with high SSI c ases working in hospitals that have linked reduced SSI incidence to pay incentives are also likely to suffer decreased salaries ( Bratzler, 2013 ). Most surgeons get paid for the work they do regardless of SSI co mplications. However, those who have elevated cases of SSI suffer decreased payment incentives. This is one way that has been adopted to reduce the incidence of SSI.
References
AHRQ. (2019). Surgical site infections. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/surgical-site-infections
Bratzler, D. W. (2013). Editorial commentary: Accountability for surgical site infections: Will the playing field be level ?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Program Evaluation and Performance. (2012). Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/eval/guide/step1/index.htm#:~:text=Introduction%20to%20Program%20Evaluation%20for%20Public%20Health%20Programs%3A,be%20done%20with%20the%20results%20of%20the%20evaluation .
