It is important to track three types of measures when you are working to reduce surgical site infections.

Outcome Measures
These measure tell you whether changes are actually leading to improvement — that is, helping to achieve the overall aim of reducing surgical site infections (SSIs). Improvement in outcome measures reflects the health status of the patient and has a direct effect on mortality and morbidity. An example of an outcome measure is Number of Cases between Surgical Site Infections.

Process Measures

To affect the outcome measure of reducing SSIs, you will make changes to improve core processes — including processes for use of prophylactic antibiotics, maintenance of body temperature and preparation of operative sites. Measuring the results of these process changes will tell you whether the changes are leading to an improved system and will reflect the care delivery to the patient. An example of a process measure is Percent of Surgical Cases with On-Time Prophylactic Antibiotic Administration.

Balancing Measures
Use these measures to make sure that changes to improve one part of the system aren’t causing new problems in other parts of the system. For example, when focusing on appropriate administration of prophylactic antibiotics, it is important to also monitor the Incidence of Resistant Bacterial Strains to ensure that overuse of antibiotics does not occur.