Hospital for Special Surgery Has Lowest Infection Rate for Total Hip Replacement in New York State
Top Hospital Third Year in a Row According to New York State Department of Health Report
New York City—September 23, 2011
“It is vital to a patient’s well-being that they are aware of a center’s infection rate when choosing where to have surgery,” said Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO. “I am proud of the achievement that our entire staff continues to make in keeping more patients safe from infection.”
Surgeons at Hospital for Special Surgery performed the most hip replacement surgeries in New York State, with more than 3,800 procedures, which is about 15 percent of the approximate 26,000 hip replacement or revision procedures in New York State in 2010. Hospital for Special Surgery was the only center of the 167 hospitals included in the report that had a statistically lower surgical site infection rate of 0.5 percent compared with the state average of 1.0 percent for total hip replacement or revision hip procedures.
“At Hospital for Special Surgery, we perform almost four times more total hip replacement surgeries than any other institution in New York State,” said Surgeon-in-Chief, Dr. Thomas P. Sculco. “Infection in total hip surgery is catastrophic and at Hospital for Special Surgery we are totally committed to employing the most advanced techniques to prevent this devastating complication.”
Hospital for Special Surgery’s specialization in orthopedic surgery allows for systems that improve efficiency in surgical settings within each operating room, lowering surgical times and improving safety. Numerous best practices—many pioneered at Hospital for Special Surgery—have helped to keep infection rates low. The Hospital’s anesthesiologists are leaders in using regional anesthesia for joint replacement, which limits anesthesia only to the surgical region, and reduces bleeding and surgical time.
“An infection prevention nurse is dedicated and oversees the operating room, and each room is standardized, improving efficiency and lowering surgical time by having surgical tools laid out and organized in the same order,” explained Eileen Finerty, RN, nursing director for Infection Control and Occupational Health.
All joint replacement procedures are performed quickly, in an average of one to two hours. “In general, the shorter the surgical time, the lower the risk for infection,” said Dr. Sculco.
During surgery, a patient’s exposure to contaminants is minimized, because they are isolated from the environment by a specially designed Plexiglas enclosure, which helps to improve air flow and to restrict excess personnel at the surgical field. After surgery, the operating rooms are meticulously cleaned by staff that is regularly monitored for competency by the infection control nurse, and the infection control department ensures that heightened standards are maintained.
New York State’s strict regulatory and surveillance systems require hospitals to report certain hospital-acquired infections to the State Department of Health. This year’s publication is the fourth annual report of hospital-acquired infections in New York State, but the third annual report to include hip replacement procedures. The report states that the data are made publically available each year to give people information about hospital performance that could help them make informed medical decisions.
View the full report from the New York State Department of Health at:
http://www.health.state.ny.us/statistics/facilities/hospital/hospital_acquired_infections
See all of Hospital for Special Surgery’s initiatives towards providing the highest quality healthcare at: http://www.hss.edu/quality
About HSS | Hospital for Special Surgery
HSS is the world’s leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics for 14 years in a row and No. 2 in rheumatology by U.S.News & World Report (2023-2024). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has one of the lowest infection rates in the country and was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center four consecutive times. The global standard total knee replacement was developed at HSS in 1969. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State. In addition, HSS opened a new facility in Florida in early 2020. In 2019, HSS provided care to 151,000 patients and performed more than 35,000 surgical procedures, and people from all 50 U.S. states and 89 countries travelled to receive care at HSS. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 translational research laboratories, 33 scientists, 10 clinician-scientists, 55 clinical investigators and 245 scientific support staff that drive the HSS research enterprise in the musculoskeletal “ecosystem,” neurology, pain management and rheumatic diseases. The HSS Innovation Institute was formed in 2016 to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is the world’s leading provider of education on musculoskeletal health, with its online learning platform offering more than 300 courses to more than 30,000 medical professional members worldwide. Through HSS Global Ventures, the institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally.
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