Strategies to promote reporting of Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures: a pilot survey of anesthesia department leaders.
BACKGROUND
The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a quality improvement initiative focused on reducing surgical complications. Reporting SCIP performance measures helps determine whether hospitals receive the full payment update from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Strategies in use by hospitals to motivate departmental participation in SCIP reporting are poorly understood.


METHODS
A 12-item pilot survey exploring strategies to promote reporting of SCIP measures was developed and mailed to department of anesthesiology chairs at 1,426 US hospitals. Descriptive statistics and χ (2) analysis were used to summarize respondent and survey data.


RESULTS
In all, 29.5% of the sample responded to the survey, with 96.9% indicating SCIP participation; 62.5% participated primarily for voluntary reasons, and 4.2% reported an incentive from their hospital as the primary reason for participation.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospital strategies promoting physician participation in SCIP currently vary. A minority of survey respondents indicated that an incentive was used to encourage adherence to SCIP measures. Further research to optimize such strategies may support future efforts to improve perioperative care.
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA ; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, 423 Guardian Drive, Blockley Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6021, USA.
Rebecca M
RM
Speck
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Mark D
MD
Neuman
Department of Anesthesia, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Andrew R
AR
Bond
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Lee A
LA
Fleisher
Performance measures; Surgical Care Improvement Project