Press Release - Sep 21, 2009

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Receives National Recognition for Exemplary Outcomes from the American College of Surgeons

Boston, MA — The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) has recognized Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) as one of  25 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals in the United States that have achieved exemplary outcomes for surgical patient care.  As a participant in ACS NSQIP, BWH 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.  

BWH is commended as part of the select group of hospitals that achieved exemplary outcome performances related to patient management in two or more of five clinical areas:  DVT (deep vein thrombosis, thrombophlebitis and pulmonary embolism); cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction); Pneumonia; SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); or urinary tract infection. Risk-adjusted data from the June 2009 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated exemplary 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 250 hospitals.