Continuous Quality Monitoring - Research Paper Example

Department of Health, 2011). This paper explores CMS accreditation in references to surgical site infection, one of the hospital-acquired infections. Hospital-acquired infections during surgeries may be caused by poor performance of surgical procedures such as insertion of catheters (tubes) into body tracts, nose, mouth, or blood vessels, contaminated hands and surgical environment and materials. Hospital-acquired infections are sometimes referred to as nosocomial infections and appear 48 hours to four days after a patient has been admitted at a health facility.

Most affected by nosocomial infections are patients under long-term care in hospitals and patients admitted for intricate procedures such as surgeries. In most cases, surgical site infections are caused by surgical procedures or/and unsterilized surrounding. Regrettably, health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have indicated that almost half of nosocomial infections are preventable if only health care providers strictly adhered to the set guidelines (Centers for Medicare, Medicaid Services, & U.S. Department of Health, 2011).

The situation is made worse by the fact that nosocomial infections occur in already immune-compromised patients (Pittet, 2010). Among the major causes of surgical site infections are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, which are already in the body or are acquired from contaminated hospital equipment, other patients, the environment, or health workers. In recent times, hospital-acquired conditions such as surgery site infections have poised quite a range of new challenges for the Medicaid and Medicare programs (Centers for Medicare, Medicaid Services, & U.S. Department of Health, 2011).

In fact, these challenges led the President to sign the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 on February 8, 2006, an Act, which required that an alteration be done in Medicare Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) concerning payments for