Validation of surgical care quality indicators in the Brazilian Unified Health System

To validate a set of indicators for monitoring the quality of surgical procedures in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).

Validation study developed in 5 stages: 1) literature review; 2) prioritization of indicators; 3) content validation of indicators by RAND/UCLA consensus method; 4) pilot study for reliability analysis; and 5) development of instruction for tabulation of outcome indicators for monitoring via official information systems.

From the literature review, 217 indicators of surgical quality were identified. The excluded indicators were: those based on scientific evidence lower than 1A, similar, specific, which corresponded to sentinel events; and those that did not apply to the SUS context. Twenty-six indicators with a high level of scientific evidence were submitted to expert consensus. Twenty-two indicators were validated, of which 14 process indicators and 8 outcome indicators with content validation index ≥80%. Of the validated process indicators, 6 were considered substantially reliable (Kappa coefficient between 0.6 and 0.8; p < 0.05) and 2 had almost perfect reliability (Kappa coefficient > 0.8, p < 0.05), when the inter-rater agreement was analyzed. One could measure and establish tabulation mechanism for TabWin for 7 outcome indicators.

The study contributes to the development of a set of potentially effective surgical indicators for monitoring the quality of care and patient safety in SUS hospital services.