Improving prophylactic perioperative antibiotic utilization in a hospital system.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Surgical Infection Prevention Project in 2002. The groups developed performance measures regarding perioperative antibiotic use to prevent surgical site infections. Other organizations have since adopted these measures. Spectrum Health, a not-for-profit health system in western Michigan with seven hospitals, more than 140 service sites, and a 565,000-member health insurance plan, formed an interdisciplinary quality improvement team to meet a goal of 100% adherence at two of its acute care hospitals in the city of Grand Rapids. Eighteen months later, process shifts had been achieved, demonstrating that a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach can result in consistent perioperative antibiotic utilization.