National Surgical Quality Initiative Collaboration Project; A Surgical Outcome Improvement Guidelines and Review of Literature

Abstract

The National Surgical Quality Initiation Collaboration Project (NSQIP) was started by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in the early 2000s with the aim of reducing and minimizing surgical complications by adopting a universal guideline based on collective retrospective data collections of various surgical groups throughout the United States. They applied these guidelines and evaluated the improvement in the number of surgical complications of various surgical procedures performed in the member hospital. As the number of participating hospitals increased, member hospitals started reporting to a state wide program under the American College of Surgeons guidance. The idea was that multiple institutions within a state would achieve better outcomes than a single institution alone. Since its implementation, the program has been used in reducing postoperative infections in colorectal surgery, hernia surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, breast surgery, and so forth. In this report we reviewed the various initiative programs taken by participating hospital to identify risk factors which may contribute to a higher morbidity and or mortality and draw certain guidance with the aim of reducing undesirable outcomes. The implementation of these guidelines and their outcome at our institution in the state of Michigan will be discussed as an example of this novel experience.