The Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (FC ACS) endorses the Florida Surgical Care Initiative.
“As surgeons, providing the best possible patient care is central to all we do. To improve care across our state we need the right tools and we also need collective action to help all hospitals improve. FSCI provides both. FSCI’s focus on risk-adjusted data and an outcomes-driven approach leads to reduced complications and higher quality care for our surgical patients, and it helps us reduce the high costs associated with complications.”
Lawrence Lottenberg, MD, FACSImmediate Past President, Florida Chapter, American College of Surgeons
Associate Professor of Surgery and Anesthesiology and Trauma Medical Director
University of Florida College of Medicine
Surgeons
Surgeons are at the heart of the Florida Surgical Care Initiative – the collaborative was developed by surgeons with the interests of surgeons and surgical teams in mind.
What is FSCI?
It’s a focused version of the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP), called “Best in the Nation” by the Institute of Medicine.
The four outcomes measures used by FSCI – surgical site infection, urinary tract infection, colorectal outcomes, elderly surgery outcomes – are:
- Applicable to all hospitals – urban and rural, large and small, teaching and non-teaching.
- Able to evaluate quality for a wide range of patients, including elderly patients whose outcomes are often not specifically measured and tracked in other measurement programs.
- Focused on high-impact, common procedures associated with high morbidity and mortality rates – so quality improvement efforts can have a significant impact.
- Developed in partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and submitted for endorsement by the National Quality Forum.
Like ACS NSQIP, FSCI uses risk-adjusted, clinical data, based on patient outcomes 30 days after discharge. Robust, risk-adjusted data allows each hospital to benchmark its surgical outcomes against its peers, and provides a more complete picture of surgical care.
For more detailed information, click here.
Why join FSCI?
Reduce complications: FSCI is based on ACS NSQIP, which is well-documented to have helped hundreds of hospitals achieve measured improvements in quality of care. According to one study, hospitals participating in ACS NSQIP each prevented between 250 and 500 complications annually.
Reduce costs associated with complications.
Compare results and experiences: You and your hospital work collaboratively with a statewide surgeon network to share best practices and improve the quality of your patients’ surgical outcomes, through regular conference calls and Webinars.
Improve the surgical reputation of Florida: Increasingly, policymakers are focused on geographic variations in cost and quality across the country. By focusing on reducing costly complications, FSCI will help Florida become a leader in health care quality and get ahead of pending policy changes.
Tap the expertise of the American College of Surgeons – its experienced staff, data analysis and rich database.
Prevent the risk of lower Medicare reimbursement by taking action proactively to improve quality statewide.
