A situational overview of surgical quality and safety in 2010

Surgical safety and quality initiatives have now moved to the front of the agenda for contemporary surgery.

Sixty-two surgical specialists began to study quality and cost control in 1998, and those efforts grew into a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-funded pilot study of the Surgical Care Improvement Project in 2004. Subsequent symposia and studies evolved.

A greater awareness of the issues and methods for meaningful improvement of surgical safety in nearly 25,000 specialty surgeries have been described in numerous peer-reviewed publications.

Surgeon-initiated efforts have led to marked improvements in multiple specialties and in many small and large hospitals and academic training centers.