Title: A Rational Approach for Multicentered Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Surveillance using Partitioning Analysis

Running title: Survey and intervention to reduce SSI Summary: [Background] Surgical site infection (SSI) is an ongoing major public health problem throughout the world that increases healthcare costs. Utilizing a methodology that can help clinicians to continuously collect data about SSIs, analyze it and implement the feedback back into routine hospital practice has been identified as a top national priority in Japan. [Aim] The purpose of this study was to conduct an intervention study through Operations Research using partitioning at multiple facilities, and to reduce the incidence and consequences of SSI