Arizona Hospital
Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)


Of the more than 62 million surgeries performed in the United States each year, up to 17 percent have associated major postoperative complications, such as infection, thromboembolic events, respiratory complications, and adverse cardiac events.¹ A significant percentage of these complications are preventable. SCIP promotes universal use of evidence-based care processes known to reduce surgical complications. SCIP's national goal is to reduce preventable surgical morbidity and mortality by 25 percent by 2010.

The preventable complication SCIP measures include:

• Surgical infection prevention.
• Cardiovascular complication prevention.
• Venous thromboembolism prevention.

HSAG's SCIP initiative—part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) National Patient Safety Initiative— is focused on improving surgical care by significantly reducing surgical complications in the three categories listed above. HSAG works with participating hospitals to improve surgical care through better adherence to evidence-based practice recommendations, special attention to designing systems of care with redundant safeguards, and organizational safety culture improvement.

1. Weiser T, Regenbogen S, Thompson K, Haynes A, Lipsitz S, Berry W, Gawande A. An estimation of the global volume of surgery: A modeling strategy based on available data. The Lancet . Volume 372, Issue 9633, Pages 139-144, July 2008.