Surgical Care Improvement Program and surgical site infections: initiatives to improve outcome in patients with joint replacements in a tertiary care center in Pakistan Introduction: The Surgical Care Improvement Programme (SCIP) was initiated in 2002 with the vision of reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with postoperative surgical site infection by addresses to the antibiotics use and early discontinuation, catheter removal within 48 hours postoperatively, use of clipper for hair removal, controlled blood sugars on preop, first and second postop days and maintenance of normothermia. Objective: To assess the relationship between SCIP-infection prevention care measures and postoperative infection rates in patients undergoing total knee replacement (TKR) or total hip replacement (THR). Materials and Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted including all patients who underwent primary total knee arthroplasty or total hip arthroplasty between January 2, 2013 and December 31, 2014 at our institute. Patients’ demographics and SCIP parameters were recorded in a preformed structured proforma. Outcome variable was recorded as presence of surgical site wound infection and compared. Results: A total of 307 patients (242 knee replacements and 65 hip replacements) were included in the study. Wound infection was observed in 2/242 patients (1%) in the TKR group while 3/65 (5%) showed infection in the THR group. Clipper was used after induction for operative site hair removal in 206 TKR patients and in 39 THR patients, none of them had wound infection which was significant (P=0.002 and 0.046). Conclusions: SCIP parameters ensure reduced surgical site infection rates, lesser duration of hospital stay, decreased incidence of deep venous thrombosis and reduced postop morbidity and mortality.