A Retrospective Evaluation of Compliance in Various Surgical Departments with Respect to Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Nosocomial infection is an infection that is not present or incubating when a patient is admitted to a hospital. Infections acquired in the hospital account for major causes of morbidity, mortality, functional disability, emotional suffering and increases the total cost of treatment. The incidence varies between 5–10% in developed countries and 1030% in developing countries. Every hospital is different and so are its infections, so every hospital needs to have an infection control committee which includes members of various disciplines and will be responsible for monitoring the occurrence of hospital infection and recommend corrective action. The infection control committee will have the responsibility of monitoring the occurrence of Hospital infection and recommending corrective action. It is made up of the representatives of various clinical and other disciplines. The study was undertaken with an objective to audit current practice against Hospital Infection Control Committee guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis in four surgical specialties. The compliance to various recommendations was more than 75% in all the four departments, more steps need to be taken to increase the compliance to more than 95%. Having a policy helps in limiting the use of powerful antibiotics as initial treatment and saves it for the treatment of resistant organisms.