Health Affairs: The Quality Of Surgical Care Delivered By The Military Health System

Martina

In an effort to improve surgical quality and reduce clinical variability, the Military Health System (MHS) expanded its participation in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program to all military hospitals beginning in 2015. This expansion and a partnership with the American College of Surgeons laid the foundation for a surgical quality collaborative in the MHS. In an article in this month's Health Affairs, the authors review the history of the program in the MHS and the activities that have contributed to developing the collaborative. They also report promising trends in surgical outcomes at hospitals that were already participating in the program in 2014, when a critical MHS review identified areas for improvement in surgical care. The authors conclude with a discussion of possible lessons for other health systems and challenges ahead for the MHS, now that full enrollment in the program has been completed.

A Collaborative To Evaluate And Improve The Quality Of Surgical Care Delivered By The Military Health System. Health Affairs. August 2019