Comparison of patient telephone survey with traditional surveillance and monthly physician questionnaires in monitoring surgical wound infections.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the utility of patient telephone surveys in further improving the detection of surgical wound infections (SWIs) postdischarge in the setting of ongoing traditional surveillance system and monthly physician surveys.


METHODS
Prospective surveillance study of randomly selected patients undergoing surgery in inpatient or outpatient settings.


METHODS
Tertiary care suburban hospital.


RESULTS
Five hundred one patients were randomly selected for telephone contact, of whom 189 (38%) were successfully contacted after three attempts. Eighteen (9.5%) patients reported one or more signs or symptoms of possible SWI. However, none of these patients required antibiotic therapy, was hospitalized with an SWI, or reported by his or her physician (based on the monthly questionnaire) to have had an SWI. Total time spent contacting patients was 47 hours and 48 minutes, or 15 minutes per each successful telephone contact.


CONCLUSIONS
Patient telephone surveys as conducted in this study were inefficient and failed to substantially improve the rate of detection of SWIs over traditional surveillance system and monthly physician questionnaires.
Manian
F A
FA
Department of Infection Control, St. John's Mercy Medical Center, Saint Louis, MO.
Meyer
L
L
D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006306:Health Surveys; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006801:Humans; D008923:Missouri; D010820:Physicians; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone