Wound Care

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Surgical Site Infection

What is a Surgical Site Infection?

  • A surgical site infection (SSI) occurs at the site of a surgical incision (cut) due to germs that sometimes get into the incision and cause an infection.
  • An infection can occur any time after surgery but most commonly develops shortly subsequently, usually within 30 days of an operation.
  • SSI is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections among surgical patients and can result in a longer length of hospitalization or even lead to hospital readmissions.
  • Despite advances in infection control practices SSI remains a substantial cause of morbidity, prolonged hospitalization, and death around the globe.
  • When a SSI occurs patients require immediate care from the surgeon to manage pain and infection and ongoing follow-ups from a wound care specialist to control site infection with appropriate dressing changes.
  • If you want to learn more about prevention of surgical infection click here.

What Our Team Can Do to Help

  • Our team of wound care consultants are highly skilled in assessment, prevention, and management of surgical site infection.
  • We will identify risk factors that affect healing and develop a care plan that meets the needs of individuals and caregivers.
  • The most important is to make sure our clients are on the right care pathway to manage symptoms (e.g., pain and infection), accelerate wound healing and control infection site with the appropriate dressings.
  • Our collaborative approach ensures individuals and their caregivers’ concerns and preferences are taken into consideration.
  • We engage our clients and caregivers in self-care for prevention and management of risk factors that leads to site infection.

What to Expect During Our Virtual Care

  • In our first appointment a comprehensive assessment will be obtained to identify individuals’ needs and address risk factors affecting healing and develop a personalized care plan based on best practices guidelines for SSI.
  • Individuals and caregivers learn about our collaborative approach and develop confidence to engage in prevention of further issues.
  • We explain how to have access to our ongoing support through our virtual platform and APP.
  • with our app individuals and caregivers will be able to upload photos of the wound’s site any time, ask questions and connect with us from the comfort of their home.
  • We provide expert recommendations and ongoing follow-ups to individuals and caregivers until wound closure.