Proactive surgical site infection surveillance is crucial to driving improvement, as well as to identifying patients who may be in need of rapid intervention. The development of a remote monitoring platform could have the potential to transform the way hospitals tackle this challenging issue.
In the UK, it is estimated that one in 20 patients who undergo surgery contract a surgical site infection (SSI.)1 SSIs often occur post-surgery in the part of the body where the surgery was performed, increasing an individual’s risk of morbidity and mortality.2 Patients with an SSI are six times more likely to be readmitted to hospital,3 and SSIs cost the NHS an estimated £700m per year.4
Effective monitoring and assessment of post-surgical wounds is critical to aiding recovery and early management of SSIs, but as with other health services, the COVID-19 pandemic made this challenging. The pandemic has put considerable pressure on hospital capacity and increased the backlog of people waiting for routine care.5 However, the events over the past two years have accelerated the use of much needed ingenious digital health solutions, allowing clinicians and patients to monitor symptoms and conditions, like SSIs, remotely. These tools play a crucial role in saving clinical time and improving patient care, by eliminating unnecessary trips to healthcare facilities, and offer significant cost savings for the NHS.
An innovative approach to SSI
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