At the Edge of a New Frontier in Quality Measures

Kougias and Sharath discuss the study by Chen et al on tested the resilience of VASQIP-sampled, facility-level adjusted outcomes as an accurate representation of overall facility performance. Postoperative morbidity has a significant effect on quality of life and survival. Thus, quality improvements (QI) in surgical care aim to reduce complications through well-established systems designed for early risk detection. Their findings demonstrate that existing sampling strategies underrepresent outlier facilities, diminishing effective mitigation measures and highlighting the potential for adverse postoperative events in at-risk programs. The authors indicate that despite a track record of significant contributions to health care quality, it is time to take surgical QI to the next level.