Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative
Working Together to Achieve Rapid and Sustained Improvement for Surgical Patients
ISQIC Overview
ISQIC takes the unique approach of providing each hospital with a formal quality and process improvement training curriculum, surgeon mentors and process improvement coaches, as well as, financial support for the implementation of QI initiatives.
ISQIC is modeled off the Michigan, Tennessee, and Florida collaboratives that work collaboratively to improve surgical quality and safety by sharing their experiences, best practices, successes, and failures. These statewide collaboratives have proven successful in accelerating quality improvement (Campbell et al. Arch Surg., 2010).
ISQIC hospitals report detailed data to ACS NSQIP on demographics, comorbidities, clinical lab values, and detailed postoperative outcomes for patients undergoing surgery.
The data are reported using highly standardized definitions to ensure fair comparisons between hospitals and used to create risk-adjusted benchmark comparison reports on more than 30 postoperative outcomes for each participating hospital. Hospitals can then identify areas of poor performance and target these areas for quality improvement.
In addition, ISQIC hospitals report and receive comparative feedback on key process measures with the ability to view and compare empirical data about hospital performance and participate in the ISQIC initiatives. Hospitals will be equipped to use their data to successfully implement quality improvement (QI) initiatives and improve care.
ACS NSQIP Helps Hospitals Improve Quality
The data platform used to spur quality improvement for ISQIC is American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). Numerous studies have shown that ACS NSQIP can help hospitals considerably reduce complication rates and decrease costs. The average ACS NSQIP participating hospital is estimated to annually prevent 250 complications, save 12-36 lives, and reduce costs by millions of dollars. It is expected that over the course of the three year project, participating hospitals will demonstrate meaningful improvements in quality of care through significant reductions in complication rates, length of stay, readmissions, and deaths. In addition, hospitals will demonstrate increased process measure adherence, and they will also appreciate significant cost reductions.
For specific examples on reductions in complications, cost savings, and further information, visit the NSQIP website at http://site.acsnsqip.org