Performance Improvement: Getting an Early Start

BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) and the Surgical Care Improvement Program (SCIP) can be utilized to develop quality initiatives to improve surgical care. Understanding the fundamentals of quality measures provides insight to the six Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies. Resident education needs a robust exposure to quality measures, such as NSQIP and SCIP to prepare surgeons for tomorrow's healthcare system. METHODS: The resident champion (RC) position is a dedicated research year between the PGY-2 and PGY-3 as a way to introduce residents to NSQIP and the importance of quality improvement. The resident partners with the NSQIP clinical reviewer to analyze data, develop quality improvement projects, implement these initiatives, and re-examine quality performance. RESULTS: Over the last 24 months, there have been numerous performance improvement initiatives and projects implemented at our facility as a direct result of the RC's efforts and their participation within the performance improvement committees. In addition, the projects led to multiple presentations at national conferences. CONCLUSIONS: A dedicated year in performance improvement has benefited our residents with a working knowledge of quality measures and our institution with multiple projects that have yielded significant improvements in the quality of patient care. (J Surg 69:774-779. (C) 2012 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)