Innovations in Surgical Care | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

Innovations in Surgical Care | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

Innovations in Surgical Care 

Hospitals are implementing innovative strategies in surgical care—moving away from traditional paper-based systems, enhancing access to real-time information, and leveraging data in new ways to support quality improvement.

The featured Innovations describe how two medical centers redesigned processes related to surgical care by implementing the use of electronic systems, leading to a reduction in surgical delays, better operating room utilization, and increased overall efficiency. The third profile describes a hospital that established an innovative cross-division surgical quality group to identify opportunities for systematic improvement, leading to lower surgery-related mortality rates.

The featured QualityTools provide resources and checklists to help hospitals deliver safer surgical care by reducing surgical infections, complications, and related deaths, and preventing wrong-site surgeries.

Featured Innovations:

• Real-Time Surgery Tracking Leads to Better Operating Room Utilization and Turnover, and Earlier Surgery Starts
• Cross-Division Surgical Group Conducts Quarterly Review as Supplement to Traditional Department-Specific Morbidity and Mortality Reviews, Leading to Lower Mortality Rates
• Web-Based System for Scheduling and Informed Consent Eliminates Surgical Delays and Problems Related to Consent Forms, Handwriting, and Equipment

Featured QualityTools:

• Preventing Wrong-Site Surgery Toolkit
• SCOAP Surgical Checklist Initiative
• Safe Surgery 2015 Toolkit

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Innovations ▸

• Countywide, Public–Private Consortium Conducts Outreach and Provides Enrollment Assistance, Enhancing Access to Coverage for Low-Income and Uninsured Residents

QualityTools ▸

• Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Estimator
• Clinical Practice Implementation Tool for Hypertension
• County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

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