The Power of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program—Achieving A Zero Pneumonia Rate in General Surgery Patients

Abstract

ment Program (NSQIP) provides riskadjusted outcome measures for participating hospitals to use for performance improvement. This article summarizes its history and reports the two projects on postoperative respiratory complications-intubation >48 and pneumonia. It also explains the benefit of a severalhospital collaborative and describes development of a "playbook."

Contemporary National Surgical Outcomes in the Treatment of Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction

“…The database has been shown to be the most effective database for determining postoperative outcomes. 26,27 Our study confirmed that MIP is associated with short hospital stays, decreased morbidity, and no difference in operative time.…”

Exploring the Frontier of Electronic Health Record Surveillance

“…3 This commitment of a health system to deliver the safest medical care possible for its patients requires the ability to detect and record complications. 4, 5 Hence, a key challenge for improving patient safety is an accurate and widely implementable means of identifying the occurrence of complications.…”

Understanding Quality Issues in Your Surgical Department: Comparing the ACS NSQIP With Traditional Morbidity and Mortality Conferences in a Canadian Academic Hospital

“…16 Although 2 recent large-scale studies did not demonstrate statistically significant improvements in the incidence of complications in NSQIP-enrolled hospitals when compared with controls, 9,10 it is clear that participation in the ACS NSQIP can contribute to improved patient safety and provide a platform for quality improvement. For instance, participating hospitals have shown reduced rates of pneumonia 17 and urinary tract infections. 18 Using rigorous data collection techniques, the ACS NSQIP is able to track complications over time and increases transparency of surgical performance.…”