What gets measured gets noticed. Tracking surgical site infection post caesarean section through community surveillance: A post intervention study protocol.

AIM

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of HealthTracker, a surgical site infection surveillance system that aims to improve the notification of surgical site infection for women after giving birth by caesarean section.

DESIGN

This protocol is an intervention study to evaluate the effectiveness of the surveillance system called "HealthTracker" in monitoring surgical site infections post caesarean section.

METHODS

This study will use a mobile web application to automatically send a text message inviting all women who give birth to a live baby by caesarean section over six months during 2020-2021, at an Australian tertiary referral hospital. The text message invites women to complete a web-based validated Wound Healing Questionnaire. The estimated number of eligible women in six months is 700 (caesarean section rate: 34% of 4,000 births annually).

INTERVENTION

the proposed "HealthTracker" surveillance system facilitates active patient-reported surgical site infection identification through an automated mobile text message linking women to an individualized online Wound Healing Questionnaire.

DISCUSSION

This project aims to provide a consistent, reliable and cost effective surgical site infection surveillance tool to improve post caesarean section surgical site infection reporting, can be scaled for broader utilization and will provide valuable information to decision makers regarding surgical site infection prevention.

IMPACT

Study findings will provide insights into whether HealthTracker is an efficient and cost effective platform for a systematic and consistent approach to surgical site infection surveillance that can be adopted more broadly, across the local health organization, the State and across other surgical specialty areas. This information will equip hospitals and clinicians with knowledge to better identify patient outcomes related to SSI post discharge from hospital and inform decision making related to preventative strategies, providing the necessary momentum to introduce practice change initiatives aimed at reducing surgical site infection rates.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ACTRN12620001233910.