Improving surgical complications and patient safety at the nation's largest military hospital: An analysis of national surgical quality improvement program data (1 March 2017)

Summary

The U.S. Military Health System cares for over 9 million patients and encompasses 63 hospitals and 413 clinics worldwide. Military medicine balances the simultaneous tasks of caring for those patients wounded in military engagements, treating large numbers of families of service men and women, and training the next generation of health care providers and ancillary staff. Similar to civilian health care delivery in the United States, military medicine has also seen increased scrutiny in the areas of cost and quality. 

To determine the scope of complication rates, data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) were analysed. The goal of this article from Maturo et al. was to describe the NSQIP surgical outcome data for the U.S. Military's largest medical center from 2009 to 2014 and compare national averages in the areas of mortality, morbidity, cardiac occurrences, pneumonia, unplanned intubation, ventilator use greater than 48 hours, infections, readmissions, and return to operating room.