Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Service (SSISS)

Welcome to the Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Service web page. This site will give you the information you need to become familiar with the service.

A surgical wound infection occurs when micro-organisms from the skin or the environment enter the incision that the surgeon makes through the skin in order to carry out the operation.

These infections can develop at any time from two to three days after surgery until the wound has healed (usually two to three weeks after the operation). Very occasionally, an infection can occur several months after an operation particularly when an artificial implant has been used, for example a hip replacement.

Surgical wounds are uncommon. Most are limited to the skin, but can spread occasionally to deeper tissues.

Infections are more likely to occur after surgery on parts of the body that harbour lots of germs, such as the gut.

The Surgical Site Infections Service was established in 1997. The scheme encourages hospitals (both NHS and private) to use surveillance to improve the quality of patient care by enabling them to collect and analyse data on Surgical Site Infections (SSI) using standardised methods.

It provides national data that can be used as a benchmark allowing individual hospitals to compare their rates of SSI with collective data from all hospitals participating in the service.

The aim is to provide a flexible system that enables hospitals to participate for a minimum three month period in one or more of 12 defined categories of surgical procedures.