Medical Press writes: A study of the post-operative outcomes in the Veterans Health Administration shows that rates of complications and mortality following complications, known as failure to rescue, improved significantly within the VA during the last 15 years. The study was carried out by researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine and the VA Pittsburgh Health System, and published today in JAMA Surgery. The VA is the largest integrated health system in the US providing care for nearly 9 million veterans. Since the 1980s the VA has invested in the development of systems to monitor and improve the quality of surgical care provided at its institutions. The VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) was implemented in the 1990s with the purpose of helping VA hospitals improve their performance. Since that time, VASQIP has collected clinical data from all VA institutions where major surgery is performed and its implementation has resulted in significant improvements in perioperative outcomes across the VA.
Read more:
- Complications and Failure to Rescue After Inpatient Noncardiac Surgery in the Veterans Affairs Health System, JAMA Surg. Published online September 21, 2016.
- Medical Press: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-09-post-operative-outcomes-va-years.html