Blanket Warmers for Reducing Surgical Site Infections (SSI)
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Surgical Site Infections (SSI) can be very scary for both patient and caregiver. Theycan start with a fever, redness and pain around the affected area, and/or cloudy fluid discharge but can escalate or could even cause death.
An estimated 2-5 percent of inpatient surgeries develop an SSI in the United States. These infections can add an additional 7-10 days post-op in the hospital and cost an extra $11,000 - $35,000.
While these stats can be scary, there are ways to help prevent these SSIs from happening. Vancouver General Hospital has had great success in reducing post-operative infections by implementing the acronym “CLEAN”.
C: Clean hands before touching the dressing, chlorhexidine wipes applied to the body before surgery, clippers used for hair removal instead of shaving, and nasal decolonization (disinfecting the nostrils with ultraviolet light) performed
L: Leave the dressing on for 72 hours postoperatively, and leave the pink chlorhexidine disinfectant on the skin for 6 hours after the operation
E: Engage patients and staff on best practices for SSI prevention
A: Appropriately use antibiotics
N: Normothermia (normal body temperature), normal blood glucose (sugar), nutritious meals, and no smoking for patients
Since implementing “CLEAN”, the hospital managed to reduce SSIs by 77 percent during open-heart surgeries, according to the American College of Surgeons.
Maintaining normothermia and patient warming has many benefits, including reducing infection rates and hypothermia. However, there are some warming methods that are thought to be safer than others. Blanket warmers and fluid warmers are believe to decrease the risk of infection while maintaining the warmth of the patient when compared to forced air warming systems, which blow air over the patient and could disturb and spread microbes from the floors and surrounding areas outside of the sterile field.
Future Health Concepts, Inc. (FHC) offers a full line of top quality customizable single, double, or triple blanket warmers or warming cabinets with a variety of features and options you can’t beat! Some of our options include Touch Screen Control, Built-in Ethernet, Temperature recorder, and solution baskets. Manufactured of the highest quality, all of our warming cabinets undergo stringent testing procedures to assure a long life and accurate temperature settings.
Future Health Concepts understands how vital this equipment is for your hospital or surgery center and guarantees our product with a one-year labor and five-year parts warranty.
Check them out on our webpage, or give us a call at 888-282-8644 and see if we meet your specifications.
Staff
12/16/2015