ELIMINATING HARM: Preventing Complications and Reducing Surgical Complications: The Florida Surgical Care Initiative

Goal-Save lives, reduce suffering and lower costs related to complications of surgery.

Developed in association with the American College of Surgeons, the two-year surgical care initiative involved 67 Florida hospitals, making it the largest statewide surgical
quality collaborative in the nation. Florida Blue provided valuable financial support, and the initiative received endorsements from the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Florida Health Care Coalition, Mayo Clinic and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. FSCI encouraged broad participation and focused on high-impact areas:

• Surgical outcomes for elderly patients, a critical measure in a state with the nation's largest percentage of elderly patients who undergo a high percentage of operations performed.
• Colorectal surgical outcomes, important because of the relatively higher complication rate of these procedures and the fact that the majority of hospitals perform them.
• Surgical site infections and urinary tract infections, vital to improving quality because their high incidence provides an excellent opportunity for faster, less complicated healing.