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Qualis Health to implement surgical infection reduction project Qualis Health will provide technical and professional guidance and support for the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) in Alaska, Idaho and Washington when it launches a national campaign next August to reduce surgical complications by 25 percent. The project will focus on surgical site infections as well as cardiac, respiratory and venous thromboembolic complications. According to the Institute of Medicine, more than 5 percent of surgical patients suffer some kind of medical complications from their surgery. And a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that post operative complications account for as much as 22 percent of preventable deaths among patients. The SCIP steering committee has worked together for a year to develop a quality improvement framework to improve both patient safety and the quality of care for surgical services nationwide. The group consists of 10 public and private organizations, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American College of Surgeons, American Hospital Association, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others. This project follows the successful national Surgical Infection Prevention Collaborative managed by Qualis Health, under CMS contract, in which 56 hospitals around the nation reduced their rates of surgical infections by 27 percent. For more information about the SCIP, contact Patty Mahrt, Director of Idaho Medicare Operations, 800- 488-1118 Jennifer Monie, Director of Alaska Medicare Operations, 800-878-7170. |
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