further time and resources in training staff and implementing
an ineffective change throughout the hospital.
After more brainstorming and review of the literature, the
team decided to try experimenting with the shave preparation
technique for preparing the surgical site before surgery.
Working initially with a few willing surgeons and nurses,
they developed a new shave preparation protocol and used it
for several months. The control chart in fig 3 indicates that
this change resulted in an improvement with the SSI rate
reducing from approximately 2.1% to 0.9%. (For this type of
chart the mean SSI rate is the reciprocal of the centre line:
1/47=2.1% compared with 1/111=0.9%.) Note that on this
type of chart data plotted above the UCL indicate an
improvement, as an increase in the number of surgeries
between SSIs equates to a decrease in the SSI rate