In October 2025, Cory Winther, BSN, RN, CNOR, a clinical nurse in the operating room and chair of the Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center’s Professional Governance Coordinating Council presented at the Northern California Regional Nurse Excellence Governance Council (RNEGC) on the exemplary reduction in surgical site infection (SSI) rate in the operating room. The interprofessional perioperative services team used evidence to guide clinical practice in two key areas:

• Surgical skin antisepsis: Ensuring adherence to manufacturers’ instructions for use (IFU) and in aligning practice with the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) recommended guidelines for skin antisepsis in the operating room. Eunice Ower, BSN, RN, CNOR, perioperative unit council chair and AORN member, identified variations in practice and partnered with the perioperative SSI workgroup to improve SSI outcomes.
• Care and handling of instrumentation: Implementing the use of enzymatic cleaning spray after surgical procedures in accordance with AORN recommended practices, AAMI standards, and hospital policy. This initiative required interprofessional collaboration and teamwork between the operating room and sterile processing departments to support reductions in SSI rates.

Nursing-led clinical practice changes included targeted educational sessions, competency validation through standardized skills checklists, and ongoing audits using a structured tool to ensure sustained compliance with the updated workflows. Leveraging interprofessional collaboration, teamwork, and evidence-based practices to support clinical decision-making has resulted in a significant reduction in the overall surgical site infection rates across all cases, consistently remaining well below regional and local targets throughout 2025.