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Surgical Care Improvement Project

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a national partnership of organizations committed to improving the safety of surgical care through the reduction of post-operative complications.

Surgical complications can take a measurable toll on a patient’s health and safety, extending treatment and leading to longer hospital stays. The Surgical Care Improvement Project or SCIP (pronounced skip) is designed to provide hospitals, physicians, nurses and other caregivers with effective strategies to reduce four common surgical complications: surgical wound infections, blood clots, perioperative heart attack, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. The strategies are based on the best available science and will be refined and improved as new scientific information becomes available.

Stratis Health works toward its mission to improve health care quality and safety in hospitals through initiatives, like SCIP, which are funded by federal and state government contracts, and community and foundation grants, including serving as Minnesota's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO).

Through its new three-year QIO contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which began on August 1, 2008, Stratis Health is deploying its scarce QIO resources and expertise to areas of highest need. Some of the work is more directive than in the past, targeting hospitals that meet specific, defined criteria to receive improvement assistance. Stratis Health is working with a limited number of hospitals to improve surgical care, targeting prophylactic antibiotic use, infections, venous thromboembolism (VTE), and cardiovascular risk. We provide training, clinical improvement technical assistance, organizational leadership assessment, and culture change support and the first collaborative learning session for the group was on March 26, 2009.

Resources

QualityNet A free online quality improvement resource established by CMS, QualityNet provides health care quality improvement news, resources, and data reporting tools and applications.

Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety MAPS was established in 2000 as a partnership between the Minnesota Hospital Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Minnesota Department of Health, Stratis Health, and more than 50 other public-private health care organizations working together to improve patient safety.

Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement ICSI, a collaboration of health care organizations, supports health care quality and its members in identifying and accelerating the implementation of best clinical practices for their patients.

SCIP Tip Sheet Consumer tips for a safer surgery fact sheet in English and Spanish.

AHRQ PSA Campaign Campaign to encourage consumers to ask questions and get more involved in their health care launched by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Partnering to Heal An interactive training video to prevent health care-associated infections, produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The video allows a viewer to become one of five characters who can make decisions that impact health risks, then view the results of those decisions, and learn from the outcomes. Intended for health care students, health care personnel, and patients and families.

Presentations

Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism in Patients at Risk SCIP presentation: Who? What? When? How Long?


Prophylactic Antibiotics in Orthopedic Surgery SCIP presentation.

Improving SCIP Measures: Ridgeview Medical Center’s Story A SCIP presentation presented by Ridgeview Medical Center staff: B.J. Buckland, RN, MS, director emergency and surgical services; Sarah Urtel, RHIA, MHA, executive director of strategy and organizational effectiveness; Chris Vos, RN, BS, infection control preventionist; and Beth Schnabel, RN, surgical services business manager. (52-minute Webinar)

SCIP Measures: Past, Present & Future A Webinar presented by Dale Bratzler, DO, MPH, president and CEO, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality. (55-minute recorded Webinar)

Success Stories

Collaborative Effort at Grand Itasca Improves SCIP Rates As a participant in the national Surgical Care Improvement Program (SCIP), Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, has been working to improve documentation on discontinuing antibiotics within 24 hours after surgery─one of seven SCIP measures.

CentraCare Health System-Long Prairie Develops Successful Surgical Improvement Processes CentraCare, a Long Prairie hospital in central Minnesota, has been participating with Stratis Health in the national SCIP initiative to improve health care quality around surgical processes. Its team approach to solving problems and improving processes has well exceeded expectations.

Contact Stratis Health for assistance with your quality improvement and patient safety needs.

If your hospital has projects it would like to work on, contact us to discuss how we can work together to support new initiatives.

Janelle Shearer, Program Manager
952-853-8553