HOUSTON (November 29, 2017)

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital, Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital, and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center as four of 66 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care.

As a participant in ACS NSQIP, the hospitals are 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.

The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals, or those within the top 10 percent of participating hospitals, for achieving a composite meritorious outcome related to patient management in eight clinical areas:

  • Mortality
  • Unplanned intubation
  • On a ventilator for more than 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)
  • Urinary tract infection

The 66 hospitals commended achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score across the eight areas listed above. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2017 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2016 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious 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 nearly 800 adult and pediatric hospitals.