The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized 78 of an eligible 607 hospitals participating in the adult program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2021. ACS NSQIP participating hospitals are required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures; these outcomes are then analyzed by ACS and reported back to hospitals. These results inform patient safety initiatives within the hospital and impact the quality of surgical care for all patients.
The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends 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” surgical cases. Each composite score was determined through a different weighted formula combining eight potential adverse outcomes. Outcomes in the following eight clinical areas were evaluated:
- Mortality
- Cardiac: cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction
- Pneumonia
- Unplanned Intubation
- Ventilator use for more than 48 hours
- Renal Failure
- Surgical Site Infection (SSI): superficial incisional SSI, deep incisional SSI, and organ/space SSI
- Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
Although only performance in calendar year 2021 was evaluated for the 2022 meritorious lists, a hospital must have submitted at least one case in each of the calendar years of 2019, 2020, and 2021 to be eligible for consideration on either list. Of the 685 NSQIP hospitals participating in 2021, 607 met the three-year criteria to be eligible for meritorious consideration.
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