• Simon Bergman, Vanessa Martelli, Michèle Monette, Nadia Sourial, Melina Deban, Fadi Hamadani, Debby Teasdale, Christina Holcroft, Helena Zakrzewski, and Shannon Fraser.
• Department of Surgery, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Solidage-McGill University/Université de Montréal research group on frailty and aging, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research Studies, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: simon.bergman@mcgill.ca.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg.. 2013 Nov 1;217(5):858-66.

BackgroundThe ability to measure surgical quality of care is important and can lead to improvements in patient safety. As such, processes should be carried out in an identical fashion for all patients, regardless of how vulnerable or complex they are. Our objectives were to assess quality of surgical care delivered to elderly patients and to determine the association between patient characteristics and quality of care.Study DesignThis is a retrospective pilot cohort study, conducted in a single university-affiliated hospital. Using the institution's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database (2009 to 2010), 143 consecutive patients 65 years or older, undergoing elective major abdominal surgery, were selected. Adherence to 15 process-based quality indicators (QIs) was measured, and a pass rate was calculated for each individual QI. The association between patient characteristics (age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index, functional status, wound class) and patient quality score was assessed using multiple linear regression.ResultsQuality indicators with the lowest pass rates included postoperative delirium screening (0%), level of care documentation (0.7%), cognition and functional assessment at discharge (4.9%), oral intake documentation (12.6%), and pressure ulcer risk assessment (35.0%). The mean patient quality score was 46.8% ± 10.7% (range 16.7% to 75.0%). No association was found between patient characteristics and patient quality score.ConclusionsQuality of care delivered to elderly patients undergoing major surgery at our institution was generally poor and independent of patient characteristics. Although quality appears to be uniform across different patients, these results provide targets for quality improvement initiatives.Copyright © 2013 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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