Thousands of patients each year get infections after surgery.
That often means more surgery, significant pain.or therapy.
UT Medical Center is one of a handful of hospitals putting a special focus on preventing these infections.
The hospital is one of the pilot sites for a program called Project Joints.
The goal is to prevent surgical site infections, or SSI's, in knee and hip replacement patients, and that means a few changes to they way surgeons and staff do things.
"The things that we changed the most about our program were to start testing patients for staph aureus. So we conducted a screen of every one of our patients, and if those patients were found to be colonized with staph aureus, which is MRSA or MSSA, then we would treat them with mupirocin for 5 days prior to the surgery," said Becky Ashin, UT Medical Center Orthopedic Service Line Manager.
Project Joints is a federally funded initiative. Tennessee is one of five states participating in the project.