NSQIP 2.5 Years After Startup: Is it Worth It?

In 2011, hospitals were offered the opportunity to join the most robust surgical outcome programs in the world. The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), coordinated by the American College of Surgeons, has almost 480 hospitals enrolled from across Canada and the United States. A cornerstone of the program is to phone patients 30 days after their discharge from hospital to find out if they experienced any signs or symptoms of an infection. Interest was high and twenty four hospitals signed on to the program.

Initial work of participating sites focused on cleaning the clinical data that was going to be extracted from patient charts. The way that data is collated and analysed in NSQIP resulted in taking over a year to receive the first semi-annual risk-adjusted report (SAR) in July 2012. NSQIP sites started by forming front line teams to solve the problems they found in the reports. The primary focus across the sites was to reduce urinary tract infections. We are now seeing the fruits of their labour.

This report collates the findings from the July 2013 risk adjusted reports and local stories across 23 sites.