National SCIP Partnership Developing to Reduce Surgical Complications

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), a national quality partnership, is promising to be a transformational effort to prevent postoperative complications in the United States. The partnership has set its goal to reduce surgical complications by 25 percent nationally by the year 2010 in four target areas: surgical site infections and cardiac, respiratory, and venous thromboembolic complications.

The Leapfrog Group is an active partner in the development of SCIP. A national SCIP steering committee has been working together since 2003 to develop a quality improvement framework to improve both patient safety and the quality of care for surgical services nationwide. In preparation for an official launch in summer 2005, several developmental activities are currently underway, including completion of a three-state demonstration pilot, the formation of four technical expert panels to provide specialized guidance for improving each of the four target areas, and development of information, materials and evidence-based strategies to help the hospitals and their professional staffs participate – and succeed – in this national effort.

The SCIP steering committee consists of 10 public and private organizations, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American College of Surgeons, American Hospital Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Association of periOperative Nurses, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Veterans Affairs, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Preliminary information about the SCIP Partnership was presented to the medical community for the first time at the American College of Surgeons’ Congress, held October 10-14 in New Orleans, Louisiana, by one of the SCIP steering committee members, David Hunt, MD, FACS, medical officer with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement Group.

For more information, visit and bookmark the SCIP Partnership’s website at www.MedQIC.org/scip.