Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre receives National Recognition for Meritorious Outcomes from the American College of Surgeons

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP^®) as one of 88 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2018.  As a participant in ACS NSQIP, the Hospital is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that assesses patient safety and can be used to direct improvement in the quality of surgical care.

The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving a meritorious composite score in either an “All Cases” category or a category which includes only “High Risk” cases. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2019 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2018 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes. Our Hospital has been recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” Meritorious lists.

“Continuously improving safety and quality of patient care is a primary goal at our Hospital and this recognition is a testament to that,” said Dr. Zaki Ahmed, Chief of Staff, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. “We have an incredible health care team of dedicated surgeons, physicians, staff, and patient family advisors who have an unyielding commitment to delivering care that is entrenched in our STEEEP (Safe Timely Efficient Effective Equitable Patient and Family Centred) quality framework in order to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.”

Each composite score was determined through a different weighted formula combining eight outcomes. The outcome performances related to patient management were in the following eight clinical areas:

• Mortality;
• Unplanned intubation;
• Ventilator for more than 48 hours;
• Renal failure;
• Cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction);
• Respiratory (pneumonia);
• SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs);
• Urinary tract infection.

The 88 commended hospitals achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score across the eight areas listed above.

Quality of surgical procedures in Canada has recently drawn media attention with regards to the number of surgical objects being unintentionally left inside patients during their procedures. The report from the ACS NSQIP confirms that no such incidences have occurred at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, which further demonstrates the Hospital’s commitment to quality.

ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. This program measures the actual surgical results 30 days postoperatively. The goal of ACS NSQIP is to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure) and surgical mortality (death related to a surgical procedure) and to provide a firm foundation for surgeons to apply best practices.  Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows.  ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in nearly 850 adult and pediatric hospitals.

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient.  The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients.  The College has more than 82,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.