BMJ  2004;329 (25 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7468.0-c

Wound infections are not classified consistently

Adopting different classifications of wound infections may limit the comparison of infection rates between hospitals. Wilson and colleagues (p 720) used four commonly used scales to assess and classify wounds in 4773 surgical patients. They found that the agreement between definitions was poor, limiting the use of the scales for comparing hospitals' performance. Small changes in interpretation of a definition resulted in important variations in the detection of infections.

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Relevant Article

Surgical wound infection as a performance indicator: agreement of common definitions of wound infection in 4773 patients

A P R Wilson, C Gibbons, B C Reeves, B Hodgson, M Liu, D Plummer, Z H Krukowski, J Bruce, J Wilson, and A Pearson
BMJ 2004 329: 720. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]