AHRQ Safety Program for ISCR to include emergency general surgery in 2020

Editor's Note

In this article, the American College of Surgeons and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, which launched the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery (ISCR) in 2016, announce that they are expanding the scope of the program to include emergency general surgery in 2020. They also are adding new program enhancements to help hospitals improve opioid stewardship for surgical patients.

The AHRQ Safety Program for ISCR supports hospitals in implementing perioperative evidence-based pathways to improve clinical outcomes, reduce length of stay, and improve the patient experience. This article also describes the experiences of and lessons learned by three participating hospitals, including:

• Regularly meet as a team.
• Provide multimodal education.
• Be resilient in the face of staff turnover.

The program team is now recruiting hospitals to participate in the fourth cohort, which will focus on colorectal and emergency general surgery. Hospitals are encouraged to enroll now in order to participate in the 18-month program that begins March 2020.