Healthcare institutions can used the Achievable Benchmark of Care method, also known as the ABC method, to identify the surgeons in their organizations with greater case volumes that set quality and performance benchmarks, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
The ABC method helps establish realistic performance benchmarks by analyzing the performance across all the surgeons or clinicians in an organization and figuring out the quality levels experienced by at least the top 10 percent of patients. Frequently, these benchmarks are considered more achievable than those derived from expert panel consensus or data averages.
In this study, the researchers examined more than 8,600 cases of 107 surgeons and stratified more than 32,000 Current Procedural Terminology codes into risk-adjusted clusters. They also looked at the 30-day outcomes for surgical site infections, acute kidney injuries and mortality.
The study revealed the highest volume surgeon for that CPT cluster set the benchmark for six of 16 CPT clusters for SSIs, eight of 16 CPT clusters for acute kidney injuries, and nine of 16 CPT clusters for mortality.
"The ABC method appears to be a sound and useful approach to identifying benchmark-setting surgeons within a single institution," concluded the study authors. "Such surgeons may be able to help their peers improve their performance."
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