Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network

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2023-24 Surgical Quality Improvement Campaign

Hospitals are coming together to improve surgical recovery with a focus on environmental sustainability. The new campaign Cut the Carbon: Reducing Surgical Waste aims to enhance patient care, support pandemic recovery efforts, and promote sustainable healthcare solutions.

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The Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network (ON-SQIN) is a Community of Practice that brings together surgical teams from all hospitals and specialties across the province.

Members connect regularly via educational webinars, meetings and the annual Ontario Surgical Quality Conference, and identify opportunities to improve surgical care quality using clinical data collected through the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP).

Dr. Timothy Jackson is Health Quality Ontario’s Provincial Surgical Lead.

For information on joining the Community of Practice, please email ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

Tools and Resources

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Participating Hospitals

Participating Hospitals	Location
Cambridge Memorial Hospital	Cambridge
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario	Ottawa
Collingwood General and Marine Hospital	Collingwood
Cornwall Community Hospital	Cornwall
Grand River Hospital, Kitchener Waterloo Campus	Kitchener
Grey Bruce Health Services	Owen Sound
Halton Healthcare, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital	Oakville
Hamilton Health Sciences, Juravinski Hospital	Hamilton
Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster Children’s Hospital	Hamilton
The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids)	Toronto
Humber River Hospital	Toronto
Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston General Hospital	Kingston
Lakeridge Health, Oshawa Hospital	Oshawa
London Health Sciences Centre, Children’s Hospital	London
London Health Sciences Centre, University Hospital	London
London Health Sciences Centre, Victoria Hospital	London
Mackenzie Health	Richmond Hill
Michael Garron Hospital	East York
Hôpital Montfort	Ottawa
Niagara Health System, St. Catharine’s Site	St. Catharine’s
North Bay Regional Health Centre	North Bay
North York General Hospital	North York
Oak Valley Health, Markham Stouffville Hospital	Markham
Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital	Orillia
Quinte Heath Care	Belleville
The Ottawa Hospital	Ottawa
Trillium Health Partners, Mississauga Hospital	Mississauga
Pembroke Regional Hospital	Pembroke
Queensway Carleton Hospital	Ottawa
Renfrew Victoria Hospital	Renfrew
Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre	Barrie
Scarborough Health Network, Centenary Hospital	Scarborough
Scarborough Health Network, General Hospital	Scarborough
Sinai Health System, Mount Sinai Hospital	Toronto
Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Care	Sioux Lookout
Southlake Regional Health Centre	Newmarket
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre	Toronto
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton	Hamilton
Unity Health, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto	Toronto
Unity Health, St. Michael’s Hospital	Toronto
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre	Thunder Bay
University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital	Toronto
University Health Network, Toronto Western Hospital	Toronto
William Osler Health Centre, Brampton Civic Hospital	Brampton
William Osler Health Centre, Etobicoke General Hospital	Etobicoke

American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program^® (ACS NSQIP^®) is a leading validated, risk-adjusted, outcomes-based program to measure and drive improvements in surgical care. For each year of participation in ACS NSQIP, a hospital has, on average, the opportunity to:

prevent 250–500 complications
save 12–36 lives
reduce health care costs by millions of dollars

Ontario hospitals that participate in ACS NSQIP through the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network are part of the Ontario collaborative of ACS NSQIP called “NSQIP-ON.” Participating surgical teams have access to high-quality clinical data that can be accurately compared against data at the local, provincial, national and international levels. This allows providers to benchmark top performers, and can be used to identify areas for improvement and track progress.

ACS NSQIP data are:

Not administrative: data are taken from the patient’s medical chart, with identifying factors removed
Risk-adjusted:ACS NSQIP lets you compare apples to apples. For example, caring for a chronically ill 75-year-old is very different from treating a healthy 21-year-old, and quality measures should take these differences into account
Case mix–adjusted: ACS NSQIP accounts for the complexity of operations performed, allowing for more accurate benchmarking
Based on 30-day patient outcomes:Studies show half or more of all complications occur after the patient leaves the hospital, often leading to costly readmissions. ACS NSQIP tracks patients for 30 days after their operation, providing a more complete picture of their care

Improvement in surgical care has benefits for:

Patients, who experience fewer complications and better outcomes, shorter hospital stays and improved satisfaction
Surgeons and surgical teams, who receive robust reports that provide performance information to guide surgical care and identify areas for improvement
Hospitals, which sustain reduced disparities of care and improved patient outcomes and realize lower costs of care, through avoidance of complications

To learn more about ACS NSQIP visit https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/acs-nsqip

To learn more about the Ontario collaborative of ACS NSQIP (NSQIP-ON), please email ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

Surgical Quality Improvement Plans

As one of the first steps in their quality improvement journeys, Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network members review their ACS NSQIP data to identify areas for improvement and strategize a plan to address those issues. Surgical Quality Improvement Plans (SQIPs) are a tool used to help teams leverage their data to create actionable ideas and goals.

Surgical Quality Improvement Plans were adapted from the provincially mandated Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs), and serve as blueprints for how a surgical team will strive to improve quality at their hospital. A SQIP is a programmatic QIP designed to help Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network members:

identify areas for improvement (using their ACS NSQIP data)
implement evidence-based quality improvement initiatives and change ideas
track data, process measures and outcomes to determine the effects of their quality improvement activities and change ideas

Submit your SQIP using the SQIP Navigator online tool.

SUBMIT HERE

Quality Improvement Resources

Additional Online Resources

Community of Practice

Access the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network community. Learn, share and innovate with others committed to improving the quality of surgical care in Ontario.

If you have questions, please contact ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

Members of NSQIP-ON can login here.

IMPROVING SURGICAL CARE IN ONTARIO

This report captures highlights from Health Quality Ontario’s evaluation of the first 18 months of the program and the work accomplished by members of the Ontario Surgical Network during this time.

Read the Report