Mercy General Receives Recognition from American College of Surgeons

Mercy General Hospital (MGH) has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) for achieving "meritorious outcomes" for surgical patient care.

MGH was one of 37 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals nationwide and the only Sacramento-area hospital on the list. Other distinguished honorees include Stanford Hospital and Clinics, University of North Carolina Hospitals and Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center in Houston, among others.

“We are so proud to have earned this esteemed acknowledgement,” said Edmundo C. Castañeda, President of Mercy General Hospital. “It is a true testament to our physicians and staff who work tirelessly day after day to make sure our patients are well cared for and that their surgical procedures are a success. Our goal is to provide top-notch, quality health care and it is an honor to be recognized for doing so by the ACS.”

As a participant in ACS NSQIP, Mercy General Hospital is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements. 

The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving meritorious outcome performances related to patient management in nine clinical areas: mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator 48 hours, renal failure, DVT (deep vein thrombosis, thrombophlebitis and pulmonary embolism); cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and heart attack); respiratory (pneumonia); SSI (surgica site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); or urinary tract infection.  The 37 hospitals commended achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score in the nine areas listed above. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2013 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2012 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes. 

ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. This program measures the actual surgical results 30 days postoperatively as well as risk adjusts patient characteristics to compensate for differences among patient populations and acuity levels. The goal of ACS NSQIP is to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure) and surgical mortality (death related to a surgical procedure) and to provide a firm foundation for surgeons to apply what is known as the “best scientific evidence” to the practice of surgery. Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows.  ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in over 500 hospitals.