ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program

The American College of Surgeons helps to improve patient care by addressing 3 critical components: care, evaluation, and improvement. Adhering to the College’s high standards results in higher quality of care, which leads to more accurate clinical data, and system-wide change. Hospitals that participate in one of our Quality Programs, including ACS NSQIP, earn the distinction as an ACS Surgical Quality Partner (SQP).

The ACS NSQIP is a standards-based data registry designed to improve hospital-wide quality across all surgical departments. ACS NSQIP helps surgical and quality teams make informed decisions about the improvement of quality of care while reducing complications and costs.

Reports sourced directly from patient records provide hospitals and staff with the most accurate and risk-adjusted data to inform patient outcomes.

To improve surgical quality, robust and valid data is required. Fifty-nine percent of surveyed sites were unaware of their hospital’s surgical complication rate before they joined ACS NSQIP. The data collected from ACS NSQIP enhances a hospital’s ability to home in on preventable complications because it was developed by surgeons who understand the realities of the operating room.

How Is ACS NSQIP Different from Other Quality Programs?

ACS NSQIP’s purpose is to collect data to help hospitals and surgeons better understand their quality of care. The data collected from ACS NSQIP is:

• From the patient’s medical chart, not insurance.
  • Why this matters: claims data are limited, inconsistent, and subject to interpretation when used to measure quality. In a study comparing ACS NSQIP data to claims data, ACS NSQIP identified 61% more complications, including 97% more surgical site infections.
• Risk adjusted.
  • Why this matters: ACS NSQIP allows hospitals a 1:1 comparison. Caring for a chronically ill 75-year-old and a healthy 21-year-old are different circumstances, which should be considered in quality measures.
• Case-mix-adjusted.
  • Why this matters: ACS NSQIP accounts for the complexity of operations performed as it allows a hospital that takes on more complex cases to calibrate its results against one that performs more straightforward procedures. This allows for more accurate national benchmarking.
• Based on 30-day patient outcomes.
  • Why this matters: Since studies show half or more of all complications occur after a patient leaves the hospital, ACS NSQIP tracks patients for 30 days after their operation. This provides a more complete picture of their care and cuts down on costly readmission rates.

Visit the ACS Case Study Repository to learn more about how ACS NSQIP participation improves quality and reduces cost.