Surgical Wound Infection Rates - Who's the Judge

In 1991, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), first published a reference manual on 'Clinical Indicators' for the introduction in 1993 of clinical patient outcome measurements as part of the ACHS Accreditation Programme. Results of Clinical Indicator programmes are compared to provisional 'thresholds' nominated by the ACHS. An indicator of surgical outcomes is the post-operative wound infection rate, which is defined as 'patients developing an infection of a wound from the fifth post-operative day onwards'.