In 2003, when JCAHO began its new emphasis on infection control measures, we undertook a major initiative to reduce the number of surgical site wound infections. But even with a multidisciplinary committee on the case and a 97 percent compliance rate for delivery of prophylactic antibiotics within 60 minutes before surgery, we still weren't able to dramatically reduce our SSIs as we would have preferred. We ended up looking at our wound closure methods, and found great success with a new protocol that doesn't call for extra manpower or supplies ' just a couple additional minutes. Here's a look at our wound closure protocol, which you can easily implement in your facility for any procedure.