Excellent outcomes for surgical patient care have earned AdventHealth Waterman recognition by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®). The hospital is one of only 88 nationwide named for such distinction.
ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in nearly 850 adult and pediatric hospitals.
As a participant in ACS NSQIP, AdventHealth Waterman is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that assesses patient safety to help direct improvement in the quality of surgical care.
The ACS NSQIP recognition program distinguishes 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. AdventHealth Waterman was recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” Meritorious lists.
Risk-adjusted data from the July 2019 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2018 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes.
Each composite score was determined through a different weighted formula combining eight outcomes. The outcome performances related to patient management were in the following eight clinical areas:
- mortality,
- unplanned intubation,
- ventilator greater than 48 hours,
- renal failure,
- cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction);
- respiratory (pneumonia);
- SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); and
- urinary tract infection.
Based on outstanding quality scores across the eight areas listed above, 88 hospitals achieved this distinction. There were 72 hospitals recognized on the “All Cases” list and 72 hospitals were recognized on the “High Risk” list. The 72 hospitals represent 10% of the 722 calendar-year 2018 ACS NSQIP hospitals. Only 56 hospitals – including AdventHealth Waterman – were recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” lists.
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.
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 82,000 members and it is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.
