The American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) has recognized 88 of an eligible 592 hospitals participating in the adult program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2018.
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 direct 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, 2016, 2017, and 2018, though only performance in calendar year 2018 was evaluated for the 2018 meritorious lists. Five hundred and ninety-two of the 722 NSQIP hospitals participating in 2018 met the three-year criteria to be eligible for Meritorious consideration.
