Inpatient surgical care: normal body temperature after surgery

When patients have surgery, it is important for hospital staff to monitor the patient’s temperature and keep it close to normal. If a patient’s body temperature gets too low during surgery, medical research indicates this may cause a greater risk of infection and that wounds may not heal as quickly. Hospital staff should make sure that patients are actively warmed during and immediately after surgery to prevent drops in body temperature. A higher percent may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

About this measure

This measure tracks the percent of patients whose body temperature was normal or near normal at the end of surgery, during the time period 15 minutes before the end of surgery to 30 minutes after anesthesia ended.

Note: In this case, a higher number is better.