Our Quality Outcomes for Shoulder Replacement

Surgical Care Improvement (SCIP) Measures

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) is a national quality partnership of 10 steering organizations (including the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) dedicated to improving surgical care through the reduction of complications. It is estimated that SCIP protocols will save many lives nationally reducing the incidence of surgical complication.

Antibiotics are critical in preventing surgical infections. Prior to surgery, patients are carefully evaluated and should be chosen a prophylactic antibiotic consistent with national guidelines. We measure our results against a 98.5% COMET benchmark.

VTE Prophylaxis

VTE is a collective term for Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE). There are both pharmaceutical prophylaxes and mechanical prophylaxis that can be ordered to prevent embolisms. We remain dedicated to making certain every patient receives the appropriate VTE prophylaxis in a timely manner.

Surgical Site Infections

Recently CMS elevated the prevention of SSIs to a national priority status. We have put a major emphasis on surgical site infections and seek new means at avoiding these complications. We are proud to communicate that our 2010 SSI rate is 0 percent.

We are well below the national benchmark level indicating a significant decreased risk of surgical site infections for our shoulder replacements.