Florida hospitals will begin collecting and sharing data on 4 key areas of surgical care as part of a new initiative aimed at reducing complications, improving quality and reducing costs.

The Florida Surgical Care Initiative (FSCI), a collaboration between the Florida Hospital Association and the American College of Surgeons, is modeled after the ACS' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Participating hospitals will collect clinical data on 4 key measures: surgical site infections, urinary tract infections, colorectal surgery outcomes and elderly surgery outcomes.

Clifford Ko, MD, FACS, director of ACS' Division of Research & Optimal Patient Care, says participating Florida hospitals will track both inpatients and outpatients for 30 days after their procedures to measure outcomes and identify complications.

"The source of the data is very important," says Dr. Ko, who notes that many other quality reporting programs get their information from financial reports, not medical records. "Billing data tends to miss a lot of complications, particularly infection. The key distinction is that clinical data identifies more of the issues and fosters quality improvement to a much greater degree."

ACS worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop the 4 FSCI measures. If the National Quality Forum, which is currently reviewing the measures, decides to endorse them, CMS may adopt them as national quality measures.

In a conference call this morning, officials from ACS and FHA said they have already received verbal commitments from some Florida hospitals to participate in the program, but do have an official list of participants yet. "We are going into a concerted recruitment effort now, and we will make our best effort to get 100 hospitals involved in this at a minimum," says FHA President Bruce Rueben.

The initiative will cost approximately $800,000 per year, with a grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida covering about half of those expenses.

Irene Tsikitas

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