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Quality and process improvement (QI/PI) in children's surgical care require reliable data across the care continuum. Since 2012, the American College of Surgeons' (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-Pediatric) has supported QI/PI by providing participating hospitals with risk-adjusted, comparative data regarding postoperative outcomes for multiple surgical specialties. To advance this goal over the past decade, iterative changes have been introduced to case inclusion and data collection, analysis and reporting. New datasets for specific procedures, such as appendectomy, spinal fusion for scoliosis, vesicoureteral reflux procedures, and tracheostomy in children less than 2 years old, have incorporated additional risk factors and outcomes to enhance the clinical relevance of data, and resource utilization to consider healthcare value. Recently, process measures for urgent surgical diagnoses and surgical antibiotic prophylaxis variables have been developed to promote timely and appropriate care. While a mature program, NSQIP-Pediatric remains dynamic and responsive to meet the needs of the surgical community. Future directions include introduction of variables and analyses to address patient-centered care and healthcare equity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: There has been longstanding uncertainty over whether lower healthcare spending in Canada might be associated with inferior outcomes for hospital-based care. We hypothesized that mortality and surgical complication rates would be higher for patients who underwent four common surgical procedures in Canada as compared to the US., Design, Setting, and Participants: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all adults who underwent hip fracture repair, colectomy, pancreatectomy, or spine surgery in 96 Canadian and 585 US hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS-NSQIP) between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019. We compared patients with respect to demographic characteristics and comorbidity. We then compared unadjusted and adjusted outcomes within 30-days of surgery for patients in Canada and the US including: (1) Mortality; (2) A composite constituting 1-or-more of the following complications (cardiac arrest; myocardial infarction; pneumonia; renal failure/; return to operating room; surgical site infection; sepsis; unplanned intubation)., Results: Our hip fracture cohort consisted of 21,166 patients in Canada (22.3%) and 73,817 in the US (77.7%), for colectomy 21,279 patients in Canada (8.9%) and 218,307 (91.1%), for pancreatectomy 873 (7.8%) in Canada and 12,078 (92.2%) in the US, and for spine surgery 14,088 (5.3%) and 252,029 (94.7%). Patient sociodemographics and comorbidity were clinically similar between jurisdictions. In adjusted analyses odds of death was significantly higher in Canada for two procedures (colectomy (OR 1.22; 95% CI 1.044-1.424; P = .012) and pancreatectomy (OR 2.11; 95% CI 1.26-3.56; P = .005)) and similar for hip fracture and spine surgery. Odds of the composite outcome were significantly higher in Canada for all 4 procedures, largely driven by higher risk of cardiac events and post-operative infections., Conclusions: We found evidence of higher rates of mortality and surgical complications within 30-days of surgery for patients in Canada as compared to the US., (© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Société Internationale de Chirurgie.)

Background: Although enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) have demonstrated promising results in published literature, their effectiveness has been inconsistent. The objective of this study was to identify the most important data use practices associated with successful implementation of ERPs., Study Design: As part of a national ERP implementation initiative, data regarding hospitals' previous ERP implementation experience were collected. Specifically, 4 data use practices (data collection, report generation, feedback to leadership, and feedback to frontline providers) and 2 data types (process measures and outcome measures) were correlated with ERP implementation outcomes (hospital-reported success and patient outcomes from the American College of Surgeons [ACS] NSQIP data)., Results: Of 140 hospitals evaluated, 73 (52.1%) reported previous ERP implementation, with wide variations in data use practices. Of these, 33 (45.2%) reported successful implementation. Feedback of both process and outcome measure data was performed by only 15.1% of hospitals, but was associated with significantly higher likelihood of successful implementation when compared with no feedback (relative risk [RR] 2.45, 95% CI 1.69 to 3.56; p < 0.001) and feedback of only outcome measure data (RR 2.73, 95% CI 1.06 to 7.00; p = 0.037). Using ACS NSQIP data from 6,888 colorectal surgery patients from 52 hospitals with colorectal ERPs, hospital-reported success was associated with significantly lower surgical site infection rates (6.6% vs 8.1%; p = 0.011) and shorter length of stay (6.2 vs 7.0 days; p < 0.001)., Conclusions: The most important data use practice associated with successful ERP implementation was data feedback to frontline providers of both process and outcome measures. However, this was rarely performed in a national cohort of hospitals and represents a substantial but straightforward opportunity for improvement., (Copyright © 2019 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Surgery for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves a complex interplay between disease, surgery, and medications, exposing patients to increased risk of postoperative complications. Surgical best practices have been largely based on single-institution results and meta-analyses, with multicenter clinical data lacking. The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS-NSQIP) has revolutionized the way in which large-volume surgical outcomes data have been collected. Our aim was to employ the ACS-NSQIP to collect disease-specific variables relevant to surgical outcomes in IBD., Study Design: A collaborative of 13 high-volume IBD surgery centers was convened to collect 5 IBD-specific variables in NSQIP. Variables included biologic and immunomodulator medications usage, ileostomy utilization, ileal pouch anastomotic technique, and colonic dysplasia/neoplasia. A sample of the Surgical Clinical Reviewer collected data was validated by a colorectal surgeon at each institution, and kappa's agreement statistics generated., Results: Over 1 year, data were collected on a total of 956 cases. Overall, 41.4% of patients had taken a biologic agent in the 60 days before surgery. The 2 most commonly performed procedures were laparoscopic ileocolic resections (159 cases) and subtotal colectomies (151 cases). Overall, 56.8% of cases employed an ileostomy, and 134 ileal pouches were constructed, of which 92.4% used stapled technique. A sample of 214 (22.4%) consecutive cases was validated from 8 institutions. All 5 novel variables were shown to be reliably collected, with excellent agreement for 4 variables (kappa ≥ 0.70) and very good agreement for the presence of colonic dysplasia (kappa = 0.68)., Conclusion: We report the results of the initial year of implementation of the first disease-specific collaborative within NSQIP. The selected variables were demonstrated to be reliably collected, and this collaborative will facilitate high-quality, large case-volume research specific to the IBD patient population., (© 2019 Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Assessments of surgical quality should consider both surgeon and patient perspectives simultaneously. Focusing on patients undergoing major gastrointestinal cancer surgery, we sought to characterize hospitals, and their patients, on both these axes of quality., Methods: Using the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry, hospitals were profiled on a risk-adjusted composite measure of death or serious morbidity (DSM) generated from patients who underwent colectomy, esophagectomy, hepatectomy, pancreatectomy, or proctectomy for cancer between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016. These hospitals were also profiled using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Highest-performing hospitals on both quality axes, and their respective patients, were compared to the lowest-performing hospitals., Results: Overall, 60,526 patients underwent their cancer operation at 530 hospitals. There were 38 highest- and 48 lowest-performing hospitals. The correlation between quality axes was poor (ρ = 0.10). Compared to the lowest-performing hospitals, the highest-performing hospitals were more often NCI-designated cancer centers (29.0% vs. 4.2%, p = 0.002) and cared for a lower proportion of Medicaid patients (0.14 vs. 0.23, p < 0.001). Patients who had their operations at the lowest- versus highest-performing hospitals were more often black (17.2% vs. 8.4%, p < 0.001), Hispanic (8.3% vs. 3.5%, p < 0.001), functionally dependent (3.8% vs. 0.9%, p < 0.001), and not admitted from home (4.4% vs. 2.4%, p < 0.001)., Conclusions: Hospital performance varied when assessed by both risk-adjusted surgical outcomes and patient experiences. In this study, poor-performing hospitals appeared to be disproportionately serving disadvantaged and minority cancer patients.

Medical errors are a significant source of morbidity and mortality, and while focused efforts to prevent harm have been made, sustaining reductions across multiple categories of patient harm remains a challenge. In 2008 BJC HealthCare initiated a systemwide program to eliminate all major causes of preventable harm and mortality over a five-year period with a goal of sustaining these reductions over the subsequent five years., Methods: Areas of focus included pressure ulcers, adverse drug events, falls with injury, health care-associated infections, and venous thromboembolism. Initial efforts involved building system-level multidisciplinary teams, utilizing standardized project management methods, and establishing standard surveillance methods. Evidence-based interventions were deployed across the system; core standards were established while allowing for flexibility in local implementation. Improvements were tracked using actual numbers of events rather than rates to increase meaning and interpretability by patients and frontline staff., Results: Over the course of the five-year intervention period, total harm events were reduced by 51.6% (10,371 events in 2009 to 5,018 events in 2012). Continued improvement efforts over the subsequent five years led to additional harm reduction (2,605 events in 2017; a 74.9% reduction since 2009)., Conclusion: A combination of project management discipline, rigorous surveillance, and focused interventions, along with system-level support of local hospital improvement efforts, led to dramatic reductions in preventable harm and long-term sustainment of progress., (Copyright © 2019 The Joint Commission. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To evaluate readmissions following laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB)., Background: Few studies have evaluated national readmission rates for primary bariatric surgery with national, bariatric-specific data., Methods: Patients undergoing primary LAGB, LSG, or LRYGB from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, at 698 centers were identified based upon Current Procedural Terminology codes. The primary outcome was 30-day readmission from date of initial operation., Results: A total of 130,007 patients who underwent primary bariatric surgery were identified: 7378 LAGB (5.7%), 80,646 LSG (62.0%), and 41,983 LRYGB (32.3%). A total of 5663 (4.4%) patients were readmitted within 30 days for all causes. Patients undergoing LAGB had the lowest related readmission rate of 1.4%, followed by LSG (2.8%), and LRYGB (4.9%). Of patients who had a complication, 17.9% (n = 785) were readmitted, whereas those without readmission had a complication 1.9% of the time (P < 0.001). The most common cause of a related readmission was nausea, vomiting, fluid, electrolyte, and nutritional depletion (35.4%), followed by abdominal pain (13.5%), anastomotic leak (6.4%), and bleeding (5.8%), accounting for more than 61% of readmissions. When compared with LAGB, LSG, and LRYGB had significantly higher rates of readmission (LSG: odds ratio 1.89; 95% confidence interval 1.52-2.33; LRYGB: odds ratio 3.06; 95% confidence interval 2.46-3.81)., Conclusions: National bariatric readmissions after primary procedures were closely associated with complications, varied based on the type of procedure, and were most commonly due to nausea, vomiting, electrolyte, and nutritional depletion.

Background: Quality improvement efforts have generally focused on hospital benchmarking, and processes and outcomes shared among all operations. However, quality improvement could be inconsistent across different types of operations. The objective of this study was to identify operations needing additional concerted quality improvement efforts by examining their outcomes trends., Study Design: Ten procedures (colectomy, esophagectomy, hepatectomy, hysterectomy, pancreatectomy, proctectomy, total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, thyroidectomy, and ventral hernia repair) commonly accrued into the American College of Surgeons NSQIP between 2008 and 2015 were included. Trends in risk-adjusted, standardized, smoothed rates were constructed for each procedure across 6 outcomes (mortality, pneumonia, renal failure, surgical site infection, unplanned intubation, and urinary tract infection [UTI])., Results: Of 1,255,575 operations analyzed, the overall unadjusted rate for mortality across all 10 procedures was 1.08%, for pneumonia 1.44%, for renal failure 0.67%, for surgical site infection 5.28%, for unplanned intubation 1.11%, and for UTI 1.86%. Hepatectomy demonstrated the greatest improvement across outcomes (4 of 6 outcomes; 362 adverse events avoided out of 10,000 procedures), and UTI demonstrated the greatest improvement across procedures (8 of 10 procedures; 989 adverse events avoided out of 10,000). For pancreatectomy, rates of mortality, unplanned intubation, and UTI improved, but surgical site infection rates were detected to have significantly increased (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: Hepatectomy was detected to have improved across the greatest number of outcomes, and UTI rates improved significantly across the greatest number of procedures. Surgical site infection rates after pancreatectomy, however, were detected to have increased, identifying an urgent need for additional concerted quality improvement efforts., (Copyright © 2017 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Fistula Risk Score (FRS) is a clinical tool developed from single-institutional data using primarily intraoperative factors to characterize the risk of clinically relevant pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) after pancreaticoduodenectomy. We developed a modified FRS based on objective, nationally accrued data that is more readily determined before resection., Study Design: The 2012 NSQIP Pancreatic Demonstration Project (PDP) was used to identify 1,731 pancreaticoduodenectomy resections over 14 months (2011 to 2012). A randomly generated 70% cohort was used for model development, and the remaining 30% for internal validation. Univariate analysis was used to identify predictors of CR-POPF. Variables with a value of p < 0.1 were included in multivariable modeling., Results: Five significant predictors of CR-POPF were identified and assigned points based on odds ratios: sex, BMI, preoperative total bilirubin, pancreatic ductal diameter, and gland texture. The 10-point model was further applied to the 2014 PDP for external validation. In the testing group, risk scores of 0 to 2 (negligible risk), 3 to 6 (low risk), 7 to 8 (intermediate risk), and 9 to 10 (high risk) were associated with CR-POPF rates of 0%, 6.7%, 16.4%, and 33.7%, respectively. Similar values were seen using the internal validation cohort: 0%, 6.3%, 13.5%, and 31.0%, respectively. The external validation values were 2.9%, 10.2%, 16.4%, and 25.8%, respectively., Conclusions: This modified FRS allows for estimation of CR-POPF risk using preoperative and easily determined intraoperative factors, and will allow comparison of performance data for individual surgeons to national norms, improved perioperative counseling, and potential for scrutinizing and/or implementing interventions designed to decrease CR-POPF rates., (Copyright © 2017 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Surgical quality improvement depends on hospitals having accurate and timely information about comparative performance. Profiling accuracy is improved by risk adjustment and shrinkage adjustment to stabilize estimates. These adjustments are included in ACS NSQIP reports, where hospital odds ratios (OR) are estimated using hierarchical models built on contemporaneous data. However, the timeliness of feedback remains an issue., Study Design: We describe an alternative, nonhierarchical approach, which yields risk- and shrinkage-adjusted rates. In contrast to our "Traditional" NSQIP method, this approach uses preexisting equations, built on historical data, which permits hospitals to have near immediate access to profiling results. We compared our traditional method to this new "on-demand" approach with respect to outlier determinations, kappa statistics, and correlations between logged OR and standardized rates, for 12 models (4 surgical groups by 3 outcomes)., Results: When both methods used the same contemporaneous data, there were similar numbers of hospital outliers and correlations between logged OR and standardized rates were high. However, larger differences were observed when the effect of contemporaneous versus historical data was added to differences in statistical methodology., Conclusions: The on-demand, nonhierarchical approach provides results similar to the traditional hierarchical method and offers immediacy, an "over-time" perspective, application to a broader range of models and data subsets, and reporting of more easily understood rates. Although the nonhierarchical method results are now available "on-demand" in a web-based application, the hierarchical approach has advantages, which support its continued periodic publication as the gold standard for hospital profiling in the program.

Background: The American College of Surgeons, National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) surgical quality feedback models are recalibrated every 6 months, and each hospital is given risk-adjusted, hierarchical model, odds ratios that permit comparison to an estimated average NSQIP hospital at a particular point in time. This approach is appropriate for "relative" benchmarking, and for targeting quality improvement efforts, but does not permit evaluation of hospital or program-wide changes in quality over time. We report on long-term improvement in surgical outcomes associated with participation in ACS NSQIP., Study Design: ACS NSQIP data (2006-2013) were used to create prediction models for mortality, morbidity (any of several distinct adverse outcomes), and surgical site infection (SSI). For each model, for each hospital, and for year of first participation (hospital cohort), hierarchical model observed/expected (O/E) ratios were computed. The primary performance metric was the within-hospital trend in logged O/E ratios over time (slope) for mortality, morbidity, and SSI., Results: Hospital-averaged log O/E ratio slopes were generally negative, indicating improving performance over time. For all hospitals, 62%, 70%, and 65% of hospitals had negative slopes for mortality, morbidity, and any SSI, respectively. For hospitals currently in the program for at least 3 years, 69%, 79%, and 71% showed improvement in mortality, morbidity, and SSI, respectively. For these hospitals, we estimate 0.8%, 3.1%, and 2.6% annual reductions (with respect to prior year's rates) for mortality, morbidity, and SSI, respectively., Conclusions: Participation in ACS NSQIP is associated with reductions in adverse events after surgery. The magnitude of quality improvement increases with time in the program.

Objective: To assess statistical reliability of hospital profiling models in ACS NSQIP (American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program)., Background: The ACS NSQIP January 2013 Semiannual Report provided risk-adjusted hospital quality assessments for 137 models., Methods: Median reliability and percentage of hospitals achieving acceptable reliability were computed for each model. Average median reliability was computed across models with common outcomes., Results: Median reliability varied across the 137 models, from a high of 0.91 for "All Cases Morbidity" to a low of 0.005 for "Procedure-Targeted Total Hip Arthroplasty Surgical Site Infection." Generally, reliability was greatest for models with larger sample sizes and higher outcome event rates. Among "Essentials" models, 72% attained a median reliability of 0.40 or more, and 24% of 0.70 or more. Among "Procedure-Targeted" models, 29% attained a median reliability of 0.40 or more, and 3% of 0.70 or more. Percentage of hospitals achieving an acceptable reliability of 0.40 ranged from 98% for "All Cases Morbidity" to 0% for "Procedure-Targeted Pancreatectomy Mortality." For Essentials models, average median reliability for each outcome, except mortality, was more than 0.40. However, for Procedure-Targeted models the average median was less than 0.40., Conclusions: For a large proportion of ACS NSQIP Essentials models, statistical reliability is adequate for assessing surgical quality and differentiating hospital performance. The Procedure-Targeted program is evolving in terms of statistical reliability, with promising results to date. These results also argue for broader discussions of statistical reliability in performance assessments for the profession.

Background: Existing large clinical registries capture short-term follow-up. Yet, there are many important long-term outcomes in surgery, such as recurrence of a ventral hernia after ventral hernia repair. The goal of the current study was to conduct an exploratory analysis to determine whether the rates, timing, and risk factors for ventral hernia re-repair in claims data linked to registry data were consistent with the known clinical literature., Study Design: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) and Medicare inpatient claims linked data set from 2005 to 2008 was queried to identify ventral hernia re-repairs after index ventral hernia repairs. Survival analysis was used to examine the ventral hernia re-repair rate over time and to quantify the relationship with clinical variables., Results: Of 3,730 index ventral hernia repairs identified in ACS-NSQIP, 247 patients (6.6%) underwent re-repair of a ventral hernia during the study period (2005-2008) in the Medicare claims data. ACS-NSQIP clinical variables that were associated with the ventral hernia re-repair rate in Medicare claims data 1 year after index ventral hernia repair were being a smoker (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.70, P = .02), body mass index (HR = 1.16, P = .04), and postoperative superficial surgical-site infection (HR = 2.88, P < .001)., Conclusion: Long-term rate and timing of ventral hernia re-repair obtained from claims data were an underestimate compared with clinical studies. Yet, several known clinical risk factors for recurrence in the clinical registry were associated with the re-repair rate in claims data at one year. It may be possible to study certain long-term outcomes using selected reoperation rates using the technique of linked clinical registry-claims data, with an understanding that event rates are conservative estimates., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), in operation since late 2004, evaluates surgical quality and safety by feeding back valid, timely, risk-adjusted outcomes, which providers use to improve care., Methods: A number of components have been developed and refined in the more than a decade since ACS NSQIP's initiation. These items can be grouped into areas of data collection, case sampling, risk adjustment, feedback reporting, the expansion into procedure-targeted sampling, development of improvement collaboratives, and the development of improvement tools. Although ACS NSQIP was originally designed as a hospital-based program, it now also allows for surgeon-specific reporting that can be used by individual surgeons as a feedback tool to improve their performance., Results: There are more than 600 ACS NSQIP hospitals in 49 of the 50 states of the United States and in 13 other countries. Virtually all surgical (sub)specialties are touched by ACS NSQIP, which contains several million patient records and more than 100 statistically risk-adjusted models. In studies that have used ACS NSQIP clinical data, demonstrable improvement has been reported in local hospitals, in regional collaboratives, and across the program overall. Concomitantly, substantial cost savings for individual hospitals, as well as at regional and national levels, have been reported., Conclusion: ACS NSQIP has not only demonstrated how and why the use of accurate clinical data is crucial, but also how the program, through its risk-adjusted feedback, improvement tools, and hospital collaboratives, helps hospitals and providers to achieve safer surgery and better patient care.

Background: NSQIP and the Accordion Severity Grading System have recently been used to develop quantitative methods for measuring the burden of postoperative complications. However, other audit methods such as chart reviews and prospective institutional databases are commonly used to gather postoperative complications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate discordance between different audit methods in pancreatoduodenectomy--a common major surgical procedure. The chief aim was to determine how these different methods could affect quantitative evaluations of postoperative complications., Study Design: Three common audit methods were compared with NSQIP in 84 patients who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy. The methods were use of a prospective database, a chart review based on discharge summaries only, and a detailed retrospective chart review. The methods were evaluated for discordance with NSQIP and among themselves. Severity grading was performed using the Modified Accordion System., Results: Fifty-three complications were listed by NSQIP and 31 complications were identified that were not listed by NSQIP. There was poor agreement for NSQIP-type complications between NSQIP and the other audit methods for mild and moderate complications (kappa 0.381 to 0.744), but excellent agreement for severe complications (kappa 0.953 to 1.00). Discordance was usually due to variations in definition of the complications in non-NSQIP methods. There was good agreement among non-NSQIP methods for non-NSQIP complications for moderate and severe complications, but not for mild complications., Conclusions: There are important differences in perceived surgical outcomes based on the method of complication retrieval. The non-NSQIP methods used in this study could not be substituted for NSQIP in a quantitative analysis unless that analysis was limited to severe complications., (Copyright © 2014 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Surgical wound classification has been used in risk-adjustment models. However, it can be subjective and could potentially improperly bias hospital quality comparisons. The objective is to examine the effect of wound classification on hospital performance risk-adjustment models., Study Design: Retrospective review of the 2011 American College of Surgeons NSQIP database was conducted for the following wound classification categories: clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated, and dirty-infected. To assess the influence of wound classification on risk adjustment, 2 models were developed for all outcomes: 1 including and 1 excluding wound classification. For each model, hospital postoperative complications were estimated using hierarchical multivariable regression methods. Absolute changes in hospital rank, correlations of odds ratios, and outlier status agreement between models were examined., Results: Of the 442,149 cases performed in 315 hospitals: 53.6% were classified as clean; 34.2% as clean-contaminated; 6.7% as contaminated; and 5.5% as dirty-infected. The surgical site infection rate was highest in dirty-infected (8.5%) and lowest in clean (1.8%) cases. For overall surgical site infection, the absolute change in risk-adjusted hospital performance rank between models, including vs excluding wound classification, was minimal (mean 4.5 of 315 positions). The correlations between odds ratios of the 2 performance models were nearly perfect (R = 0.9976, p < 0.0001), and outlier status agreement was excellent (κ = 0.95ss08, p < 0.0001). Similar findings were observed in models of subgroups of surgical site infections and other postoperative outcomes., Conclusions: In circumstances where alternate information is available for risk adjustment, there appear to be minimal differences in performance models that include vs exclude wound classification. Therefore, the American College of Surgeons NSQIP is critically evaluating the continued use of wound classification in hospital performance risk-adjustment models., (Copyright © 2014 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric was initiated in 2008 to drive quality improvement in children's surgery. Low mortality and morbidity in previous analyses limited differentiation of hospital performance., Methods: Participating institutions included children's units within general hospitals and free-standing children's hospitals. Cases selected by Current Procedural Terminology codes encompassed procedures within pediatric general, otolaryngologic, orthopedic, urologic, plastic, neurologic, thoracic, and gynecologic surgery. Trained personnel abstracted demographic, surgical profile, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative variables. Incorporating procedure-specific risk, hierarchical models for 30-day mortality and morbidities were developed with significant predictors identified by stepwise logistic regression. Reliability was estimated to assess the balance of information versus error within models., Results: In 2011, 46 281 patients from 43 hospitals were accrued; 1467 codes were aggregated into 226 groupings. Overall mortality was 0.3%, composite morbidity 5.8%, and surgical site infection (SSI) 1.8%. Hierarchical models revealed outlier hospitals with above or below expected performance for composite morbidity in the entire cohort, pediatric abdominal subgroup, and spine subgroup; SSI in the entire cohort and pediatric abdominal subgroup; and urinary tract infection in the entire cohort. Based on reliability estimates, mortality discriminates performance poorly due to very low event rate; however, reliable model construction for composite morbidity and SSI that differentiate institutions is feasible., Conclusions: The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric expansion has yielded risk-adjusted models to differentiate hospital performance in composite and specific morbidities. However, mortality has low utility as a children's surgery performance indicator. Programmatic improvements have resulted in actionable data.

Importance: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the focus of numerous quality improvement initiatives because they are a common and costly cause of potentially preventable patient morbidity. Superficial and deep/organ-space SSIs differ in terms of anatomical location and clinical severity., Objective: To identify risk factors that are uniquely predictive of superficial vs deep/organ-space SSIs occurring after colectomy procedures., Design: Retrospective cohort study., Setting: American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program., Participants: Patients undergoing colectomy procedures in 2011 were identified by Current Procedural Terminology codes., Intervention: Colectomy procedures., Main Outcomes and Measures: We compared rates of superficial SSI and deep/organ-space SSI associated with perioperative variables of interest: demographics; preoperative clinical severity, risk factors, and comorbidities and variables related to the hospitalization or procedure. Hierarchical multivariable logistic regression models were developed to identify risk-adjusted predictors of each SSI type., Results: Among 27 011 patients identified from 305 hospitals, 6.2% developed a superficial SSI and 4.7% developed a deep/organ-space SSI. Risk factors common to the occurrence of both SSI types were identified: open surgery (vs laparoscopic) and current smoker. Risk factors with differential effects on each SSI type included specific postoperative diagnoses, disseminated cancer, and irradiation therapy, which were all associated with increased odds of deep/organ-space SSI only. The graded relationship between increasing body mass index and SSI occurrence appeared to be stronger for superficial SSI., Conclusions and Relevance: Risk factors for superficial SSI and deep/organ-space SSI vary in terms of magnitude and significance, suggesting that these SSI types are somewhat different disease processes. Groups interested in preventing SSIs might improve success by considering these SSI types independently for root-cause analyses and development of best practices and interventions.

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) collects detailed clinical data from participating hospitals using standardized data definitions, analyzes these data, and provides participating hospitals with reports that permit risk-adjusted comparisons with a surgical quality standard. Since its inception, the ACS NSQIP has worked to refine surgical outcomes measurements and enhance statistical methods to improve the reliability and validity of this hospital profiling. From an original focus on controlling for between-hospital differences in patient risk factors with logistic regression, ACS NSQIP has added a variable to better adjust for the complexity and risk profile of surgical procedures (procedure mix adjustment) and stabilized estimates derived from small samples by using a hierarchical model with shrinkage adjustment. New models have been developed focusing on specific surgical procedures (eg, "Procedure Targeted" models), which provide opportunities to incorporate indication and other procedure-specific variables and outcomes to improve risk adjustment. In addition, comparative benchmark reports given to participating hospitals have been expanded considerably to allow more detailed evaluations of performance. Finally, procedures have been developed to estimate surgical risk for individual patients. This article describes the development of, and justification for, these new statistical methods and reporting strategies in ACS NSQIP., (Copyright © 2013 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To estimate the effect of preventing postoperative complications on readmission rates and costs., Background: Policymakers are targeting readmission for quality improvement and cost savings. Little is known regarding mutable factors associated with postoperative readmissions., Methods: Patient records (2005-2008) from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) were linked to Medicare inpatient claims. Risk factors, procedure, and 30-day postoperative complications were determined from ACS-NSQIP. The 30-day postoperative readmission and costs were determined from Medicare. Occurrence of a postoperative complication included surgical site infections and cardiac, pulmonary, neurologic, and renal complications. Multivariate regression models predicted the effect of reducing complication rates on risk-adjusted readmission rates and costs by procedure., Results: The 30-day postoperative readmission rate was 12.8%. Complication rates for readmitted and nonreadmitted patients were 53% and 16% (P < 0.001). Patients with a postoperative complication had higher predicted probability of readmission and cost of readmission than patients without a complication. For the 20 procedures accounting for the greatest number of readmissions, reducing ACS-NSQIP complication rates by a relative 5% could result in prevention of 2092 readmissions per year and a savings to Medicare of $31.0 million per year. Preventing all ACS-NSQIP complications for these procedures could result in prevention of 41,846 readmissions per year and a savings of $620.3 million per year., Conclusions: This study provides substantial evidence that efforts to reduce postoperative readmissions should begin by focusing on postoperative complications that can be reliably and validly measured. Such an approach will not eliminate all postoperative readmissions but will likely have a major effect on readmission rates.

Purpose: The American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric (NSQIP-P) expanded to beta phase testing with the enrollment of 29 institutions. Data collection and analysis were aimed at program refinement and development of risk-adjusted models for inter-institutional comparisons., Methods: Data from the first full year of beta-phase NSQIP-P were analyzed. Patient accrual used ACS-NSQIP methodology tailored to pediatric specialties. Preliminary risk adjusted modeling for all pediatric and neonatal operations and pediatric (excluding neonatal) abdominal operations was performed for all cause morbidity (other than death) and surgical site infections (SSI) using hierarchical logistic regression methodology and eight predictor variables. Results were expressed as odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals., Results: During calendar year 2010, 29 institutions enrolled 37,141 patients. 1644 total CPT codes were entered, of which 456 accounted for 90% of the cases. 450 codes were entered only once (1.2% of cases). For all cases, overall mortality was 0.25%, overall morbidity 7.9%, and the SSI rate 1.8%. For neonatal cases, mortality was 2.39%, morbidity 18.7%, and the SSI rate 3%. For the all operations model, risk-adjusted morbidity institutional odds ratios ranged 0.48-2.63, with 9/29 hospitals categorized as low outliers and 9/29 high outliers, while risk-adjusted SSI institutional odds ratios ranged 0.36-2.04, with 2/29 hospitals low outliers and 7/29 high outliers., Conclusion: This report represents the first risk-adjusted hospital-level comparison of surgical outcomes in infants and children using NSQIP-P data. Programmatic and analytic modifications will improve the impact of this program as it moves into full implementation. These results indicate that NSQIP-P has the potential to serve as a model for determining risk-adjusted outcomes in the neonatal and pediatric population with the goal of developing quality improvement initiatives for the surgical care of children., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Control charts are used in industry to monitor performance and are being used increasingly in hospitals as a quality improvement tool. The authors' objective was to determine if control charts using surgical site infection (SSI) rates predict changes in outlier status for risk-adjusted SSI rates using data from a surgical registry, the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Control charts of monthly SSI rates for 100 hospitals were analyzed for indicators of a performance change in 2009 (vs 2008) using standard rules. Hospitals also were classified as having better, worse, or no change in outlier status for risk-adjusted SSI rates in 2009 (vs 2008). There was moderate agreement between these methods (weighted κ = 0.401). Control charts predicted nonworsening performance well (specificity = 92.9%) and identified changes in SSI performance sooner; however, they failed to identify 31.2% of hospitals with worsened outlier status. This study demonstrates that these quality measurement tools have unique strengths and weaknesses and are complementary uses of the same clinical data source.

Background: There has been a long-standing desire to implement a multi-institutional, multispecialty program to address surgical quality improvement for children. This report documents results of the initial phase of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric., Study Design: From October 2008 to December 2009, patients from 4 pediatric referral centers were sampled using American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program methodology tailored to children., Results: A total of 7,287 patients were sampled, representing general/thoracic surgery (n = 2,237; 30.7%), otolaryngology (n = 1,687; 23.2%), orthopaedic surgery (n = 1,367; 18.8%), urology (n = 893; 12.3%), neurosurgery (n = 697; 9.6%), and plastic surgery (n = 406; 5.6%). Overall mortality rate detected was 0.3% and 287 (3.9%) patients had postoperative occurrences. After accounting for demographic, preoperative, and operative factors, occurrences were 4 times more likely in those undergoing inpatient versus outpatient procedures (odds ratio [OR] = 4.71; 95% CI, 3.01-7.35). Other factors associated with higher likelihood of postoperative occurrences included nutritional/immune history, such as preoperative weight loss/chronic steroid use (OR = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.03-2.15), as well as physiologic compromise, such as sepsis/inotrope use before surgery (OR = 1.68; 95% CI, 1.10-1.95). Operative factors associated with occurrences included multiple procedures under the same anesthetic (OR = 1.58; 95% CI, 1.21-2.06) and American Society of Anesthesiologists classification category 4/5 versus 1 (OR = 5.74; 95% CI, 2.94-11.24). Specialty complication rates varied from 1.5% for otolaryngology to 9.0% for neurosurgery (p < 0.001), with specific procedural groupings within each specialty accounting for the majority of complications. Although infectious complications were the predominant outcomes identified across all specialties, distribution of complications varied by specialty., Conclusions: Based on this initial phase of development, the highly anticipated American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric has the potential to identify outcomes of children's surgical care that can be targeted for quality improvement efforts., (Copyright © 2010 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) provides validated assessment of surgical outcomes. This study reports initiation of an ACS NSQIP Pediatric at 4 children's hospitals., Methods: From October 2008 to June 2009, 121 data variables were prospectively collected for 3315 patients, including 30-day outcomes and tailoring the ACS NSQIP methodology to children's surgical specialties., Results: Three hundred seven postoperative complications/occurrences were detected in 231 patients representing 7.0% of the study population. Of the patients with complications, 175 (75.7%) had 1, 39 (16.9%) had 2, and 17 (7.4%) had 3 or more complications. There were 13 deaths (0.39%) and 14 intraoperative occurrences (0.42%) detected. The most common complications were infection, 105 (34%) (SSI, 54; sepsis, 31; pneumonia, 13; urinary tract infection, 7); airway/respiratory events, 27 (9%); wound disruption, 18 (6%); neurologic events, 8 (3%) (nerve injury, 4; stroke/vascular event, 2; hemorrhage, 2); deep vein thrombosis, 3 (<1%); renal failure, 3 (<1%); and cardiac events, 3 (<1%). Current sampling captures 17.5% of cases across institutions with unadjusted complication rates ranging from 6.8% to 10.2%. Completeness of data collection for all variables exceeded 95% with 98% interrater reliability and 87% of patients having full 30-day follow-up., Conclusion: These data represent the first multiinstitutional prospective assessment of specialty-specific surgical outcomes in children. The ACS NSQIP Pediatric is poised for institutional expansion and future development of risk-adjusted models., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Risk-adjusted evaluation is a key component of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). The purpose of this study was to improve standard ACS NSQIP risk adjustment using a novel procedure risk score., Study Design: Current Procedural Terminology codes (CPTs) represented in ACS NSQIP data were assigned to 136 procedure groups. Log odds predicted risk from preliminary logistic regression modeling generated a continuous risk score for each procedure group, used in subsequent modeling. Appropriate subsets of 271,368 patients in the 2008 ACS NSQIP were evaluated using logistic models for overall 30-day morbidity, 30-day mortality, and surgical site infection (SSI). Models were compared when including either work Relative Value Unit (RVU), RVU and the standard ACS NSQIP CPT range variable (CPT range), or RVU and the newly constructed CPT risk score (CPT risk), plus routine ACS NSQIP predictors., Results: When comparing the CPT risk models with the CPT range models for morbidity in the overall general and vascular surgery dataset, CPT risk models provided better discrimination through higher c statistics at earlier steps (0.81 by step 3 vs 0.81 by step 46), more information through lower Akaike's information criterion (127,139 vs 130,019), and improved calibration through a smaller Hosmer-Lemeshow chi-square statistic (48.76 vs 116.79). Improved model characteristics of CPT risk over CPT range were most apparent for broader patient populations and outcomes. The CPT risk and standard CPT range models were moderately consistent in identification of outliers as well as assignment of hospitals to quality deciles (weighted kappa ≥ 0.870)., Conclusions: Information from focused, clinically meaningful CPT procedure groups improves the risk estimation of ACS NSQIP models., (Copyright © 2010 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Surgeons and hospitals are being increasingly assessed by third parties regarding surgical quality and outcomes, and much of this information is reported publicly. Our objective was to compare various methods used to classify hospitals as outliers in established surgical quality assessment programs by applying each approach to a single data set., Methods: Using American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data (7/2008-6/2009), hospital risk-adjusted 30-day morbidity and mortality were assessed for general surgery at 231 hospitals (cases = 217,630) and for colorectal surgery at 109 hospitals (cases = 17,251). The number of outliers (poor performers) identified using different methods and criteria were compared., Results: The overall morbidity was 10.3% for general surgery and 25.3% for colorectal surgery. The mortality was 1.6% for general surgery and 4.0% for colorectal surgery. Programs used different methods (logistic regression, hierarchical modeling, partitioning) and criteria (P < 0.01, P < 0.05, P < 0.10) to identify outliers. Depending on outlier identification methods and criteria employed, when each approach was applied to this single dataset, the number of outliers ranged from 7 to 57 hospitals for general surgery morbidity, 1 to 57 hospitals for general surgery mortality, 4 to 27 hospitals for colorectal morbidity, and 0 to 27 hospitals for colorectal mortality., Conclusions: There was considerable variation in the number of outliers identified using different detection approaches. Quality programs seem to be utilizing outlier identification methods contrary to what might be expected, thus they should justify their methodology based on the intent of the program (i.e., quality improvement vs. reimbursement). Surgeons and hospitals should be aware of variability in methods used to assess their performance as these outlier designations will likely have referral and reimbursement consequences.

IntroductionThere is little consensus of quality measurements for restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis(RPC-IPAA) performed for ulcerative colitis(UC). The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program(NSQIP) cannot accurately classify RPC-IPAA staged approaches. We formed an IBD-surgery registry that added IBD-specific variables to NSQIP to study these staged approaches in greater detail.MethodsWe queried our validated database of IBD surgeries across 11 sites in the US from March 2017 to March 2019, containing general NSQIP and IBD-specific perioperative variables. We classified cases into delayed versus immediate pouch construction and looked for independent predictors of pouch delay and postoperative Clavien-Dindo complication severity.Results430 patients received index surgery or completed pouches. Among completed pouches, 46(28%) and 118(72%) were immediate and delayed pouches, respectively. Significant predictors for delayed pouch surgery included higher UC surgery volume(p = 0.01) and absence of colonic dysplasia(p = 0.04). Delayed pouch formation did not significantly predict complication severity.ConclusionsOur data allows improved classification of complex operations. Curating disease-specific variables allows for better analysis of predictors of delayed versus immediate pouch construction and postoperative complication severity.Short summaryWe applied our previously validated novel NSIP-IBD database for classifying complex, multi-stage surgical approaches for UC to a degree that was not possible prior to our collaborative effort. From this, we describe predictive factors for delayed pouch formation in UC RPC-IPAA with the largest multicenter effort to date.

• Risk-adjustment model variables in NSQIP-Ped require meticulous collection and represent a significant burden. • Periodic assessment of variables can identify unnecessary variables for revision or elimination. • We present a method for identifying superfluous variables using the congenital malformation variable as an example. Risk-adjustment is a key feature of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-Ped). Risk-adjusted model variables require meticulous collection and periodic assessment. This study presents a method for eliminating superfluous variables using the congenital malformation (CM) predictor variable as an example. This retrospective cohort study used NSQIP-Ped data from January 1st to December 31st, 2019 from 141 hospitals to compare six risk-adjusted mortality and morbidity outcome models with and without CM as a predictor. Model performance was compared using C-index and Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) statistics. Hospital-level performance was assessed by comparing changes in outlier statuses, adjusted quartile ranks, and overall hospital performance statuses between models with and without CM inclusion. Lastly, Pearson correlation analysis was performed on log-transformed ORs between models. Model performance was similar with removal of CM as a predictor. The difference between C-index statistics was minimal (≤ 0.002). Graphical representations of model HL-statistics with and without CM showed considerable overlap and only one model attained significance, indicating minimally decreased performance (P = 0.058 with CM; P = 0.044 without CM). Regarding hospital-level performance, minimal changes in the number and list of hospitals assigned to each outlier status, adjusted quartile rank, and overall hospital performance status were observed when CM was removed. Strong correlation between log-transformed ORs was observed (r ≥ 0.993). Removal of CM from NSQIP-Ped has minimal effect on risk-adjusted outcome modelling. Similar efforts may help balance optimal data collection burdens without sacrificing highly valued risk-adjustment in the future. Level II prognosis study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In honor of the seminal contributions of Dr. Shukri Khuri to the foundation and development of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), a review of recent work and new directions within the American College of Surgeons (ACS) NSQIP is presented, according to the following outline: [I] recent work [II] potential existing limitations of NSQIP [III] directions underway for the future [IV] additional initiatives and topics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) empowers surgeons and medical centers to reliably collect, analyze, and act on clinically collected outcomes data. How individual ACS NSQIP leaders designated as Surgeon Champions (SC) utilize the ACS NSQIP at the hospital level and the obstacles they encounter are not well studied. Materials and Methods: All SC representing the 236 hospitals participating in the ACS NSIQP were invited to complete a survey designed to assess the role of the SC, data use, continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts, CQI culture, and financial implications. Results: We received responses from 109 (46.2%) SC. The majority (72.5%) of SC were not compensated for their CQI efforts. Factors associated with demonstrable CQI efforts included longer duration of participation in the program, frequent meetings with clinical reviewers, frequent presentation of data to administration, compensation for Surgical Champion efforts and providing individual surgeons with feedback (all P < 0.05). Almost all SC stated ACS NSQIP data improved the quality of care that patients received at the hospital level (92.4%) and that the ACS NSQIP provided data that could not be obtained by other sources (95.2%). All SCs considered future funding for participation in the ACS NSQIP secure. Conclusions: Active use of ACS NSQIP data provide SC with demonstrable CQI by regularly reviewing data, having frequent interaction with clinical reviewers, and frequently sharing data with hospital administration and colleagues. SC thus play a key role in successful quality improvement at the hospital level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]