The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center as one of 37 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care. The hospital was the only one in Houston, and one of two in Texas, to achieve the prestigious distinction.
As a participant in ACS NSQIP, Memorial Hermann Memorial City is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements.
"We are incredibly thrilled about this recognition," said Keith Alexander, CEO of Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center. "It affirms the meticulous attention we have devoted to patient safety and quality at our hospital and as a system."
J.R. Cali, MD, colorectal surgeon on staff at Memorial Hermann Memorial City, agrees. "The NSQIP® database permits surgeons the ability to precisely monitor their surgical outcomes and to continuously enact process and quality improvement as a result of having this data. Our medical staff and employees should be commended and honored to be one of 37 hospitals in the country to be recognized by ACS NSQIP."
The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving meritorious outcome performances related to patient management in nine clinical areas: mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator > 48 hours, renal failure, DVT (deep vein thrombosis, thrombophlebitis and pulmonary embolism); 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.
"As a system, our focus has been a relentless drive toward making sure the patients who are admitted to our hospitals do not acquire an infection or suffer a preventable harm," said M. Michael Shabot, MD, System Chief Medical Officer for Memorial Hermann. "This recognition certainly validates the great attention and work Memorial Hermann Memorial City has dedicated to patient safety and quality."
The 37 hospitals commended achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score in the nine areas listed above. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2013 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2012 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes.
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. ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in over 500 hospitals.
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 74,000 members and it is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.