title: Quality improvement 101 for surgeons: Navigating the alphabet soup.
abstract: It is a fundamental value of the surgical profession to improve care for its patients. In the last 100 years, the principles of prospective quality improvement have started to work their way into the traditional method of retrospective case review in morbidity and mortality conference. This article summarizes the history of "improvement science" and its intersection with the field of surgery. It attempts to clarify the principles and jargon that may be new or confusing to surgeons with a different vocabulary and experience. This is done to bring the significant power and resources of improvement science to the traditional efforts to improve surgical care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Santore
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Florida, 1600 SW Archer Rd, PO Box 100119, Gainesville, FL 32610. Electronic address: Saleem.islam@surgery.ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Saleem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000266:history* / Q000592:standards; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000266:history*; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000266:history* / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States
keywords: Codman; Deming; NSQIP; Process improvement; Quality improvement; Surgery