Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) among patients in surgical wards are serious complications that do not only affect surgical outcomes, but also increase medical care costs. Objective: To determine the proportion of patients with HAIs in surgery wards and identify factors associated with HAIs. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Surgery, Southern Philippines Medical Center, from January 2016 to December 2016. Participants: 182 patients from different surgical wards. Main outcome measures: Presence of HAI; prevalence odds ratios (POR) of having an HAI for selected factors. Main results: There were 182 patients (122 males and 62 females; mean age 34.89 ± 20.56 years) included in this report. Seventeen patients (9.34%) developed HAI during admission. Among patients who underwent surgery (n=126), having an HAI was significantly associated with: operation time >180 minutes (adjusted POR=15.18; 95% CI 3.92 to 58.69; p=0.0001), >4 surgical team members (adjusted POR=5.42; 95% CI 1.37 to 21.41; p=0.0158), general anesthesia (adjusted POR=10.46; 95% CI 1.29 to 84.63; p=0.0278), and use of inhalational anesthesia (adjusted POR=11.81; 95% CI 1.45 to 96.08; p=0.0210). Conclusion In this study, 9.34% of patients had an HAI during admission. Long hospital stay, use of indwelling medical devices, long surgical procedures, high number of surgical team members during surgery, general anesthesia, and use of inhalational anesthesia are all associated with having an HAI.
Surgical Wound Infection ; Cross Infection ; Pneumonia ; Anesthesia, General