Recording of postoperative wound infections in Denmark. Implementation, surgeons attitude, status and recommendations

To evaluate the state of the surveillance of surgical infections in Denmark. To investigate whether a negative attitude to infection registration on the part of the chief surgeon is correlated to departments with no plans of recording their infections.

Questionnaire sent to all surgical and gynaecological departments in Denmark.

The National Centre for Hospital Hygiene, Statens Seruminstitut, Copenhagen, Spring 1991.

73 general, 34 orthopaedic, eight thoracic and vascular surgical departments, seven reconstructive, five neurosurgical, and 31 gynaecological departments.

Kind of specialty, attitudes to infection registration, do register, plan to register, no plans to register, type of program, year of start of registration, satisfaction, problems and suggestive improvements.

Out of 170 possible units, 65 were already recording their infection rates, 59 had plans to start registration, 34 had no plans to start, five did not state whether they had any plans to start, and seven units did not respond. The units which were recording their infections had a more positive attitude towards surveillance systems.

We found that the Danish public health service had a high degree of concern about infection surveillance without any legislative or other regulative pressures, and the process of implementing surveillance is still ongoing. The adoption of a common minimal data set is recommended in order to make a national and international comparison of infection surveillance data possible. Enlarging the infection control team may result in a better wound infection surveillance in hospitalised patients. More intensive studies are needed to examine how effectively surveillance prevents postoperative infections.