Performance indicators to evaluate the use of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis: construction and validation

Abstract

The study aims to contribute to hospital infection control practices by the development and validation of performance indicators to evaluate the use of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis. Using a methodology for drawing up measures to evaluate health practices, one basic and five secondary indicators were constructed and submitted to content validation through attributes of operational manual, representativeness and applicability by technical consensus of specialists. All indicators got consensus, although one attribute of applicability of the basic indicator and the secondary indicators were questioned by the specialists. The suggestions of the experts, however, allowed adjustments and therefore validation. Given that different types of evaluation of clinical practices have been built, but not always substantiated and validated, it is believed that methods of construction and validation like in this study are its greatest contribution.