Surveillance of surgical site infections in European hospitals – HAISSI protocol

Surgical site infections are among the most common healthcare-associated infections, associated with longer postoperative hospital stay, additional surgical procedures or stay in an intensive care unit, and often higher mortality. The main objective of the European protocol for the surveillance of surgical site infections is to ensure standardisation of definitions, data collection and reporting procedures for hospitals participating in the national/regional surveillance of surgical site infections across Europe, in order to contribute to the EU surveillance of healthcare-associated infections and to improve the quality of care in a multicenter setting. The current protocol describes the methods for the surveillance of surgical site infections as they were implemented in The European Surveillance System (TESSy) for communicable diseases covered under Decision No 2119/98/EC, in 2010.