Background: This study aims at presenting data on Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) obtained from 33 Polish hospitals in the years 2003–2004 making use of a quality control tool - the Standardized Surgical Site Infection ratio (benchmarking) for estimation of work of the infection control teams and surgical wards from participating hospitals.
Material and methods: In this study we used data collected from surgical wards of various specialties in Polish hospitals, conducting active nosocomial infections surveillance and registration programme. The hospitals were of different degree of specialisation and ownership. The programme encompassed patients undergoing surgical procedures with a total no. of 67 000 procedures. 1544 cases of SSIs were diagnosed. Detailed analyses were performed on 14 procedure types according to National Nosocomial Infection System (NNIS).
Results: Average SSIs incidence was found to be 2.7%, with the highest incidence for colon and reproductive system procedures as well as cesarean sections. The incidence value depended strongly on the type of surgical procedure.
Conclusions: The development of infections surveillance that evolved in Polish hospitals over the last decade, allowed to implement a modern method of infection control, i.e. targeted surveillance of selected patient populations and advanced epidemiological analyses. Post discharge surveillance and poor coopetion of infection control teams with the ward personnel still remain a big problem in Polish hospitals, especially in Orthopaedic as well as Obstetrics and Gynaecology wards.