The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized Rutland Regional Medical Center, as one of 78 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2022. As a participant in ACS NSQIP, Rutland Regional is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that assesses patient safety and can be used to direct improvement in the quality of surgical care.
Rutland Regional is among a select group of hospitals that has achieved a meritorious composite score in either an “All Cases” category or a category which includes higher risk cases (“High Risk”). Risk-adjusted data from the July 2023 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which represents data from the 2022 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes. Rutland Regional has been recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” Meritorious lists.
“This is a great reflection of the terrific work of our surgeons, OR staff, and recovery teams,” said Matt Conway, general surgeon and NSQIP champion at Rutland General Surgery at Rutland Regional Medical Center. “Continuity of care is so important and receiving recognition in both ‘All Cases’ and ‘High Risk’ categories means that we are hitting the high standards we have set for ourselves.”
Each composite score was determined through a different weighted formula combining eight outcomes. The outcome performances related to patient management were in the following eight clinical areas: mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator > 48 hours, renal failure, cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction); respiratory (pneumonia); SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); or urinary tract infection.
The 78 commended hospitals achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score across the eight areas listed above. Rutland Regional Medical Center was one of 46 hospitals to be recognized on both the “All Cases” and the “High Risk” lists, representing approximately 7% of the 615 calendar-year 2022 ACS NSQIP hospitals.
Rutland Regional’s OR consists of five operating rooms accommodating surgical procedures across a broad spectrum of specialties including orthopedic, cancer, urology, ophthalmology, OBGYN, ear, nose and throat, and general surgery to name a few.
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 nearly 850 adult and pediatric hospitals.
