Factors Contributing To Surgical Site Infections Among Postoperative Patients On Surgical And Maternity Wards At St. Francis Hospital Mutolere, Kisoro District.

Surgical site infections remain one of the most frequently and reported post-operative
complications in all health care associated infections leading to prolonged hospital stay, higher
costs, readmissions, morbidity and mortality, and reopening of incision site among postoperative patients. The study determined factors contributing to surgical site infections among
post-operative patients on surgical and maternity wards at St. Francis hospital Mutolere, Kisoro
district. The study involved a descriptive cross-sectional design using purposive and stratified
sampling technique on a sample of 36 respondents. Data was collected using a pre-tested selfadministered questionnaire for health workers and a pretested self-administered interview guide
for post-operative patients and the collected data was analyzed using statistical package for
social science and Microsoft excel 2010 and then presented in form of percentages and
frequencies in tables and figures.
Findings showed that 100% of respondents had ever given care to patients with surgical site
infections and 62.5% of respondents indicated that infections mostly affected post-operative
patients above 40 years and female sex (55.0%) had high chance of developing surgical site
infections. 66.7% of respondents indicated diabetes mellitus, 53.3% indicated obesity as
underlying conditions contributing to SSIs among post-operative patients. Additionally 81.2% of
respondents indicated heavy work load, 68.8% indicated duration of surgery and use of
contaminated equipment’s were health worker related factors contributing to SSIs. The study
concluded that patients who got surgical site infections had underlying conditions, age of 40
years and above and female sex had high chances of developing SSIs. Therefore there is need for
continuous professional development, organizing workshops about surgical site infection control
and management and there should be division of tasks among health workers to reduce workload