Expensive to treat and hazardous to patients, surgical site infections must be prevented.
Surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The average SSI costs a hospital approximately $21,000 and accounts for over 30 percent of all HAIs[1].
Prevantics® Maxi Swabstick – featuring PDI’s proprietary 3.15 percent chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) and 70 percent isopropyl alcohol (IPA) formulation – is a single-step, broad-spectrum antiseptic that significantly reduces the number of microorganisms on intact skin, including the skin bacteria that potentially cause SSIs. It is indicated for patient preoperative skin preparation, and it complies with evidence-based practices and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Association for Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN).
Prevantics Maxi Swabstick provides continuous antimicrobial activity for up to seven days for rapid microbial reduction. It is ideal for body contours, such as joints and between toes and fingers. Additionally, its foam head is pre-saturated for easy application, and the intuitive swabstick format keeps clinicians’ gloved hands away from prep sites. Prevantics Maxi Swabstick contains 5.1 mL of the CHG/IPA solution and can cover a 7×7 square inch area for preoperative preparation. Clinicians should scrub a patient’s skin with one side of the Prevantics Maxi Swabstick for 60 seconds, flip the swabstick and scrub for an additional 60 seconds with the unused side before allowing the patient’s skin to dry for 90 seconds.
Sales reps should ask their primary care and ambulatory surgery center customers how they prepare patients’ skin prior to a small surgery and clarify how they protect their patients from surgical site infections. In addition, sales reps should highlight the above benefits of Prevantics Maxi Swabstick.
Prevantics Maxi Swabstick does not contain a tinted solution, and some healthcare providers may object to using a non-tinted preoperative skin preparation product. Sales reps should ask physicians how they use tint and why it is important to them. For example, some healthcare providers like to see the outline of the prepped area of skin. While Prevantics Maxi Swabstick does not contain a tint, CHG solution does leave a slight sheen indicating that the area has been prepped. If clinicians are prepping the skin themselves, they will know the outline and may not require tint. Sales reps should also let primary care/ambulatory surgery center customers know that Prevantics Maxi Swabstick may be more cost effective than other preoperative skin preparation products, which may improve their department budget.
PDI strives to Be the Difference® every day by partnering with customers to prevent healthcare associated infections. To learn more about how to prevent SSIs – and how PDI can help your physician customers do so – please contact pdihc.com or contact your PDI territory sales manager.
[1] Source: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/hai, electronically accessed April 25, 2016.
Infection Prevention: Sponsored by PDI