Effectiveness and Cost of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis Methodology to Reduce Neurosurgical Site Infections

Mercy Hospital Springfield is a tertiary care facility with 32 000 discharges and 15 000 inpatient surgeries in 2011. From June 2009 through January 2011, a stable inpatient elective neurosurgery infection rate of 2.15% was observed. The failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) methodology to reduce inpatient neurosurgery infections was utilized. Following FMEA implementation, overall elective neurosurgery infection rates were reduced to 1.51% and sustained through May 2012. Compared with baseline, the post-FMEA deep-space and organ infection rate was reduced by 41% (P = .052). Overall hospital inpatient clean surgery infection rates for the same time frame did not decrease to the same extent, suggesting a specific effect of the FMEA. The study team believes that the FMEA interventions resulted in 14 fewer expected infections, $270 270 in savings, a 168-day reduction in expected length of stay, and 22 fewer readmissions. Given the serious morbidity and cost of health care-associated infections, the study team concludes that FMEA implementation was clinically cost-effective.