The role of Surgical Champions in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program--a national survey

Background: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) empowers surgeons and medical centers to reliably collect, analyze, and act on clinically collected outcomes data. How individual ACS NSQIP leaders designated as Surgeon Champions (SC) utilize the ACS NSQIP at the hospital level and the obstacles they encounter are not well studied.

Materials and methods: All SC representing the 236 hospitals participating in the ACS NSIQP were invited to complete a survey designed to assess the role of the SC, data use, continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts, CQI culture, and financial implications.

Results: We received responses from 109 (46.2%) SC. The majority (72.5%) of SC were not compensated for their CQI efforts. Factors associated with demonstrable CQI efforts included longer duration of participation in the program, frequent meetings with clinical reviewers, frequent presentation of data to administration, compensation for Surgical Champion efforts and providing individual surgeons with feedback (all P < 0.05). Almost all SC stated ACS NSQIP data improved the quality of care that patients received at the hospital level (92.4%) and that the ACS NSQIP provided data that could not be obtained by other sources (95.2%). All SCs considered future funding for participation in the ACS NSQIP secure.

Conclusions: Active use of ACS NSQIP data provide SC with demonstrable CQI by regularly reviewing data, having frequent interaction with clinical reviewers, and frequently sharing data with hospital administration and colleagues. SC thus play a key role in successful quality improvement at the hospital level.