Smoke-free hospitals in Greece: Personnel perceptions, compliance and smoking habit.

Smoke-free environments in Greece are scarce. Despite existent legislation that forbids smoking in all health care service centers, smoking is still evident. Using a random sample of hospital personnel from a large university hospital in Greece, we evaluated their smoking habits, perceptions and compliance towards hospital smoking regulations. 57.8% of the nursing personnel and 34.5% of medical/research staff were found to be current smokers (p < 0.05). Although 66% of the staff does not oppose the complete hospital smoking ban, 95% responded that they would prefer it to be partial. The above findings warrant the necessity for nurturing efforts to reduce smoking and increase the health professionals' awareness of their position as a role model to both patients and the society.

Surveillance of surgical site infections at a tertiary care hospital in Greece: incidence, risk factors, microbiology, and impact.

BACKGROUND: In this first attempt to implement a standardized surveillance system of surgical site infections (SSI) in a Greek hospital, our objective was to identify areas for improvement by comparing main epidemiologic and microbiologic features of SSI with international data. METHODS: The National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS) system protocols were employed to prospectively collect data for patients in 8 surgical wards who underwent surgery during a 9-month period. SSI rates were benchmarked with international data using standardized infection ratios. Risk factors were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 129 SSI was identified in 2420 operations (5.3%), of which 47.3% developed after discharge. SSI rates were higher for 2 of 20 operation categories compared with Spanish and Italian data and for 12 of 20 categories compared with NNIS data. Gram-positive microorganisms accounted for 52.1% of SSI isolates, and Enterococci were predominant. Alarming resistance patterns for Enterococcus faecium and Acinetobacter baumannii were recorded. Potentially modifiable risk factors for SSI included multiple procedures, extended duration of operation, and antibiotic prophylaxis. SSI was associated with prolongation of postoperative stay but not with mortality. CONCLUSION: Comparisons of surveillance data in our hospital with international benchmarks provided useful information for infection control interventions to reduce the incidence of SSI.