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Concurrent Education Session - 60 minutes

Implementation Science and Research

Optimizing SSI Prevention: Unique Routes to Success

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
2:15 PM – 3:15 PM MST
Location: North Room 221
CE: 1

    Presenter(s)

  • Amanda Munoz, MPH, CIC

    Infection Preventionist
    Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital
    Houston, Texas

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    • Co-Presenter(s)

  • Ashlee C. Weekley, MPH, CIC, M(ASCP)

    System Infection Preventionist
    Houston Methodist Hospital System
    Katy, Texas

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    • Moderator(s)

  • KC

    Kevin Chindwal

    I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Session Description: Surgical site infections (SSIs) pose a significant challenge in healthcare settings, but with evidence-based strategies, they can be effectively prevented. In 2022, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) released updated guidelines for SSI prevention, highlighting 19 essential practices for acute care hospitals. These provided the essential framework for implementing the SSI process improvements.
Infection preventionists across one of the nation’s leading health care systems developed a gap analysis tool utilizing these essential practices to provide resources for each facility to establish a baseline. In this presentation we will showcase the implementation of this tool at two of the community hospitals and their strategic approaches to SSI prevention. The presenters will highlight the similarities and differences from their experiences of this process improvement journey and what lessons were learned. This collaboration can provide a roadmap for conducting gap analyses and implementing essential practices within an SSI prevention program at other facilities.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify two strategic approaches to conducting a gap analysis of SSI practices in acute care hospital setting.
  • Identify and prioritize of key performance indicators (KPIs) to operationalize compliance.
  • Identify specific barriers to achieve strategy and develop process improvement recommendations.