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Participation in NSQIP not associated with improved outcomes
Data from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program demonstrated patients treated in a hospital participating in the program experienced no more improvement in postoperative outcomes than patients treated in a non-participating hospital, indicating that surgical outcomes reporting systems may not provide a definitive means for quality improvement.
Researchers compared patients’ surgical outcomes — including risk-adjusted rates of any complications, serious complications and mortality — during hospitalization for elective general/vascular surgery at hospitals that did and did not participate in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP).
The cohort included 345,357 hospitalizations occurring in 113 different academic hospitals, among which 172,882 (50.1%) hospitalizations occurred in NSQIP-participating hospitals. Patients were predominantly female (61.5%), and hernia repairs were the most common procedure performed during hospitalization (15.7%), according to the researchers.
The unadjusted rate of complications for patients was similar in NSQIP and non-NSQIP hospitals (4.8% vs. 5%), as were the unadjusted rates of serious complications (2% vs. 2.1%) and mortality (0.7% vs. 1%).
Additionally, upon accounting for factors such as patient risk, procedure type, underlying hospital performance and temporal trends, the researchers found no statistically significant differences for complications, serious complications or mortality between the two types of hospitals (adjusted odds ratio: 1, 0.98 and 1.04, respectively). – by Robert Linnehan
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.