The American College of Surgeons shares four principles for quality improvement in its report, "Lessons Learned in the Pursuit of Quality Surgical Health Care."
ACS has developed these principles based on its quality efforts, including the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, the Commission on Cancer and the Trauma Quality Improvement Program. Here are ACS' four principles to increase healthcare value:
1. Set the standards. Set clinical standards based on experience and scientific evidence.
2. Build the right infrastructure. Ensure there is the appropriate type and amount of staff, tools such as checklists, and equipment, including IT.
3. Collect robust data. Collect data from medical charts in addition to claims files, adjust for risk and submit to nationally benchmarked databases.
4. Verify through a third party. An external authority should periodically verify the organization's processes, infrastructure, measurement and benchmarking and responses to findings, according to the report.
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