Surgical Safety / Heart Failure

An essential project within CCME's Medicare-sponsored Patient Safety Program focuses on improving inpatient surgical safety and heart failure treatment in hospitals. CCME’s collaborative project works with participating hospitals in South Carolina to reduce the rate of surgical and heart care complications. This project seeks to improve heart care measures, focusing on process changes designed to improve outcomes for patients admitted to the hospital with heart failure. The core measure for this project is increasing the use of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers in patients with Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction.  

CCME also works with these hospitals to improve surgical care through better adherence to evidence-based practice recommendations, giving more attention to designing systems of care with redundant safeguards, and improving organizational culture. In addition, CCME offers assistance to hospitals in improving their Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) quality measures. SCIP, initiated by CMS several years ago, is a national quality partnership committed to improving the safety of surgical care through the reduction of post-operative complications. Partners in SCIP believe that a meaningful reduction in surgical complications depends on surgeons, anesthesiologists, perioperative nurses, pharmacists, infection control professionals, and hospital executives working together to intensify their commitment to making surgical care improvement a priority. For more information on the SCIP Project and its measures, please visit the MedQIC website.

Please visit the Patient Safety Resources section for more information on surgical safety and heart failure treatment.