CHICAGO: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized 90 of an eligible 607 hospitals participating in the adult program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2020. ACS NSQIP-participating hospitals are required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures. These outcomes are then analyzed by ACS and reported back to hospitals. These results will inform patient safety initiatives within the hospital and impact the quality of surgical care.
The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving a meritorious composite score in either an “All Cases” category or a category which includes only “High Risk” cases. Each composite score was determined through a different weighted formula combining eight outcomes. Outcomes in the following eight clinical areas were evaluated:
- Mortality
- Cardiac: cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction
- Pneumonia
- Unplanned Intubation
- Ventilator > 48 hours
- Renal Failure
- SSI: superficial incisional SSI, deep incisional SSI, and organ/space SSI
- UTI: urinary tract infection
To be eligible for either list, the hospital must have submitted at least one case in each of the calendar years of 2018, 2019, and 2020, though only performance in calendar year 2020 was evaluated for the 2020 meritorious lists. Of the 706 NSQIP hospitals participating in 2020, 607 met the three-year criteria to be eligible for Meritorious consideration.
The 90 hospitals achieved the distinction based on an outstanding composite quality score. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2021 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2020 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes. Seventy-one hospitals were recognized on the “All Cases” list and 71 hospitals were recognized on the “High Risk” list; the 71 hospitals represent approximately 10 percent of the 706 calendar-year 2020 ACS NSQIP hospitals. Fifty-two hospitals are recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” lists, 19 other hospitals are on just the “All Cases” list, and 19 other hospitals are on the “High Risk” list only – yielding 90 hospitals in total.
These meritorious hospitals are also eligible to display these achievements amongst their staff and within their institutions.
A listing of the recognized hospitals is available here.
ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. This program measures the actual surgical results 30 days postoperatively as well as risk adjusts patient characteristics to compensate for differences among patient populations and acuity levels. The goal of ACS NSQIP is to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure) and surgical mortality (death related to a surgical procedure) and to provide a firm foundation for surgeons to apply what is known as the “best scientific evidence” to the practice of surgery. Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows. ACS NSQIP is a major program of the ACS and is currently used in nearly 850 adult or pediatric hospitals.
