A Multidisciplinary Approach to Improving SCIP Compliance

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a national program aimed at reducing perioperative complications and is a quality benchmark metric for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This study evaluates whether a multidisciplinary program improved an institution's compliance with SCIP measures. Analysis of the facility's performance data identified three key areas of SCIP noncompliance: 1) timely discontinuation of perioperative antibiotics and urinary catheters, 2) initiation of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, and 3) perioperative beta blocker administration. Multidisciplinary teams collaborated with providers and department chairs in reviewing and enable SCIP compliance. Anesthesia staff managed preoperative antibiotics. SCIP-compliant order sets, venous thromboembolism pop-up alerts, and progress note templates were added to the electronic medical record. Standardized education was provided to explain SCIP requirements, review noncompliant cases, and update teams on SCIP performance. Data were captured from January 2009 to March 2014. Ten SCIP fallouts were reported for general surgery specialties in January 2013, when the SCIP compliance project launched. Specifically, colon-related surgery achieved 100 per cent compliance. Six months after implementation, overall SCIP compliance at our institution improved by 65 per cent (from 90.7-98.6% compliance).