NSQIP SAR Basics Semi-Annual Report (SAR) Gold standard of NSQIP comparison data Compares your site with the NSQIP benchmark (>500

hospital in North America) Risk-adjusted, one year of data, released every 6

months Gives you a solid foundation of where to start with

Quality Improvement initiatives

But is there more? Each site has thousands of cases of raw data

Can access any amount of these data at any time (two years worth or 2 weeks worth)

Cases details are download into an excel spreadsheet

Whew! There is a lot

of Data

Raw Data Some information is available through other sources

but using the NSQIP case details, it can be tied into outcome data as well

NSQIP patients are followed for 30 days post operatively, so you have access to information that cannot be found in the hospital system

I’ll keep digging the data until I’m blue in the face!

Examples

LOS and outcome OR Wait Times and outcome Inpatient vs outpatient outcomes LOS for patients with no outcome vs LOS of patients

with an outcome Time from OR to outcome Age and subspecialty and outcome Lap vs open procedure and outcome

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

No Outcome Pneumonia SSI UTI

Day

s Averages LOS: General Surgery Patients

2012

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

No Events 1 Event 2 Events 3 Events >3 Events

Percent of Inpatient Vs Outpatient by Number of Events

InpatientOutpatient

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

100803

100469

100683

100794

100631

100148

100548

100161

100513

100536

100421

100020

100284

100030

100419

100908

Time in Days

Time to UTI Diagnosis in Gyne Inpatients

In Hospital

Home

UTI

Spend Time with the Data Don’t be afraid to

play around with a case details report

Think about the questions you want answered an see if you can find out more from the NSQIP data

Come on Data, let’s

play!!

Drill Down is Key SAR is only a starting

point

Pinpointing specifics like when or where a patient has a specific outcome is a better use of time than targeting all possible situations

I pinpointed a specific outcome

Limitations of NSQIP Data You can only work with what is collected on the NSQIP

workstation – but information that is not explicitly provided can sometimes be calculated

Case details reports are large excel files that need to be prepared carefully before manipulating them

Information specific to occurrences are provided on a separate file and need to be combined with the details data

Lessons Learned So Far

SAR only scratches the surface

Raw data holds a wealth of detailed information about your patient populations

Don’t be afraid to

dig into the Data

See what happens

when you dig deep