Surgical Multidisciplinary Rounds: An Effective Tool for Comprehensive Surgical Quality Improvement

An analysis of outcomes, quality, and survey data was carried out to evaluate the impact of surgical multidisciplinary rounds (SMDR) at a community teaching hospital. Surgical inpatients were reviewed over a 4-year period. Real-time changes to clinical care, documentation, and programs were enacted during the rounds. SMDR contributed to reductions in length of stay (6.1 to 5.1 days), postoperative respiratory failure (15.5% to 6.8%), deep venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (2.8% to 2.3%), cardiac complications (7.0% to 1.6%), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.2% to 1.5%), and increased Surgical Care Improvement Program All-or-None compliance (95.6% to 98.7%). Additionally, SMDR increased awareness of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies among surgical residents and was associated with enhanced job satisfaction among participants. Twice-weekly SMDR is an effective care paradigm that has changed culture, improved care coordination, and facilitated rapid, sustained process improvement along multiple patient safety indicators and core measures.