The Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions are the primary advocates and mentors for NSQIP within their participating site, facilitating local success of the program. The Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions act as liaisons between administration and surgeons/anesthesiologists and serve as leaders for quality improvement initiatives to foster positive outcomes for postoperative patient care. Overall, these positions represent the “surgical conscience” for the entire hospital, identifying where the benefits of the ACS NSQIP will compound their hospital’s already established quality improvement initiatives such as M&M/QI rounds.
The Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions have professional and close working relationships with the Surgical Clinical Reviewer (SCR). As a team, they report on reliable and clinically meaningful, 30-day postoperative outcomes data to their healthcare colleagues and administration, and develop and implement site quality improvement initiatives with an aim to improve patient outcomes.
The Surgeon or Anesthesia Champion must be trusted and respected by his or her peers and administration. They should be dedicated to quality improvement and working with others to promote change where required, and are expected to stimulate collaboration across specialties at the site by working together as Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions. Strong communication skills are a must. The Surgeon or Anesthesia Champion should be persistent, have self-confidence, be comfortable interacting with others, and be a good listener. The nature of the Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions’ relationships with colleagues at the site will ultimately determine the success of the program.
In a competent and professional manner, the accountabilites for the role are:
- Be the primary NSQIP spokespersons/advocates at the site.
- Oversee implementation and administration of NSQIP.
- Regularly meet and review data with the SCR and site NSQIP team.
- Regularly meet, review data, and share learnings with Surgical Department/Zone Quality Committee.
- Lead surgical quality improvement initiatives at their site.
- Bring surgical teams together and support them to develop quality improvement initiatives.
- Integrate NSQIP into established surgical quality improvement initiatives such as M&M/QI rounds.
- Present reports to site/zone leadership.
- Present findings and recommendations to site medical leadership.
- Participate in ACS Surgeon Champion conference calls.
- Regularly attend the annual ACS Quality and Safety Conference.
- Participate in Surgery Strategic Clinical Network learning sessions.
