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The Surgical Care Improvement Project Redux: Should CMS Revive Process of Care Measures for Prevention of Surgical Site Infections?

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Infection Prevention

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Abstract

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) incentives and penalties have the potential to exert powerful motivating forces on hospital decision-makers and can result in major changes in prioritization of hospital resources. Because of this, thoughtful alignment of incentives and penalties with performance metrics that are likely to promote adherence to processes that result in improved patient outcomes is critically important. Although CMS has shifted the focus of pay-for-performance metrics from process to outcome measures, challenges around standardizing application of SSI surveillance definitions and methods and the weaknesses of current risk adjustment methods may limit the utility of SSI outcome measures. Possible modifications and additions to prior Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) process measures are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Deborah S. Yokoe

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  1. Deborah S. Yokoe
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Correspondence to Deborah S. Yokoe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. VCUHS Epidemiology and Infection Control, North Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Gonzalo Bearman

  2. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Silvia Munoz-Price

  3. University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Daniel J. Morgan

  4. Department of Medical Affairs and Division of Infectious Diseases, Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Rekha K. Murthy

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Yokoe, D.S. (2018). The Surgical Care Improvement Project Redux: Should CMS Revive Process of Care Measures for Prevention of Surgical Site Infections?. In: Bearman, G., Munoz-Price, S., Morgan, D., Murthy, R. (eds) Infection Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60980-5_11

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