Background: To assess the effectiveness of a postdischarge surveillance system to reveal cases of postpartum infections that could be missed by the current in-hospital routine surveillance and to identify predictors of postpartum infections.
Methods: The prospective surveillance included obstetrics patients. The information recorded included sociodemographic characteristics, infection-predisposing conditions, documentation of extrinsic risk factors, variables related to pregnancy and delivery, and variables related to each patient's newborn. A telephone interview on Day 30 after hospital discharge was performed to retrieve information related to signs and symptoms of infection.
Results: One thousand seven hundred five patients agreed to participate for a response rate of 93%. One hundred forty-nine (8.9%) patients contacted by telephone reported at least 1 episode of infection within 30 days of discharge. There were 24 infections occurring during hospitalization, representing only 16.1% of all infections. There was an increased risk of postpartum infections in women with complications during labor, in those who had a caesarean delivery, and in those who reported alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the need for implementing postdischarge surveillance programs for obstetrics patients that also identify infections following vaginal delivery. Postdischarge surveillance by telephone contact proved to be a feasible and effective method.
Copyright © 2013 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.