INFECTION CONTROL
Surgical site infections — where are we at and where to next? Amy Sarcevic
Leading surgical site infection (SSI) prevention specialist Lilian Chiwera* is passionately working on improving patient safety globally. Here, she reflects on the progress so far and the path forward.
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lot has changed for the better since Lilian Chiwera, founder of the Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Prevention Society, began her career in infection prevention and control (IPC) in 2009. Back then, Chiwera watched IPC practitioners work in back-office silos and felt recommendations handed down to frontline staff were sometimes unrealistic. “I remember being told to isolate infected patients at any cost, but sometimes this was just not practical. Also, research tells us that isolated patients are often tended to less than regular patients, so there were concerns about their wellbeing,” she said. Since then, Chiwera has seen IPC culture improve and rates of infection plummet,
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HOSPITAL + HEALTHCARE
SPRING 2023
thanks to greater collaboration, mandates and SSI guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO), introduced in 2016. But despite the progress she has witnessed, Chiwera says she will not relent on her tireless mission to eradicate SSIs, not just from her own workplace, but in hospitals around the world. “In the UK, mandates meant anyone who exceeded certain targets was ‘penalised’. But really, who wants to see any SSIs? I’d rather see them disappear altogether,” she said. This zero tolerance approach was her motivation for founding the SSI Prevention Society — a group dedicated to driving down SSIs, globally.
hospitalhealth.com.au