A deeper look at serious superficial incisional surgical site infections (SSISSIs): prevalence, impact, and implications for hospital performance rankings

Jessica Seidelman; Brittain Wood; Polly Padgette; Valerie Payne; Linda Crane; Linda Roach; Deverick J Anderson

doi:10.1017/ice.2025.18

A deeper look at serious superficial incisional surgical site infections (SSISSIs): prevalence, impact, and implications for hospital performance rankings

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2025 Apr;46(4):422-426. doi: 10.1017/ice.2025.18. Epub 2025 Feb 18.

Authors

Jessica Seidelman^{1

2}, Brittain Wood¹, Polly Padgette¹, Valerie Payne¹, Linda Crane¹, Linda Roach¹, Deverick J Anderson^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Duke Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention, Durham, NC, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.

PMID: 39963852
DOI: 10.1017/ice.2025.18

Abstract

Serious superficial incisional surgical site infections (SSISSIs) are a critical subset of SSIs that require surgical intervention or lead to hospital readmission. Analyzing 11,617 SSIs from 47 community hospitals, the inclusion of SSISSIs changed 30/47 hospital rankings (p = 0.02), highlighting the need for inclusion in standardized infection surveillance models.

MeSH terms

Cross Infection* / epidemiology
Hospitals, Community* / standards
Hospitals, Community* / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Prevalence
Surgical Wound Infection* / epidemiology
United States / epidemiology