The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) partnership is a multi-year national campaign, which began in August 2005 to substantially reduce surgical mortality and morbidity through collaborative efforts.

A Partnership for Better Surgical Care

The goal is to reduce nationally the incidence of surgical complications by 25% by the year 2010. The SCIP is a national partnership of organizations committed to improving the safety of surgical care through the reduction of postoperative complications. Initiated in 2003 by CMS and the CDC, the SCIP partnership is coordinated through a steering committee of 10 national organizations. More than 20 organizations provide expertise to the steering committee through a technical expert panel. The project's steering committee is composed of members from the following national organizations:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
  Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
  The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, which supports research designed to improve the outcomes and quality of health care, reduce its costs, address patient safety and medical errors, and broaden access to effective...
  
  
• American College of Surgeons
  American College of Surgeons
  The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.-Membership:...
  
  
• American Hospital Association
  American Hospital Association
  The American Hospital Association is an organization that promotes the quality provision of health care by hospitals and health care networks through such efforts as promoting effective public policy and providing information related to health care and health administration to health care...
  
  
• American Society of Anesthesiologists
  American Society of Anesthesiologists
  The American Society of Anesthesiologists is an association of physicians, primarily anesthesiologists, that share a common goal of raising the standard of the medical specialty of anesthesiology and the improvement of patient care by fostering and encouraging education through research and...
  
  
• Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
  
  
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Department of Veterans Affairs
  United States Department of Veterans Affairs
  The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense...
  
  
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
  Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
  The Joint Commission , formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations , is a United States-based not-for-profit organization that accredits over 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States...
  
  

See also

• Patient safety
  Patient safety
  Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...
  
  
• Perioperative mortality
  Perioperative mortality
  Perioperative mortality is mortality in relation to surgery, often defined as death within two weeks of a surgical procedure. An important consideration in the decision to perform any surgical procedure is to weigh the benefits against the risks...
  
  
• ASA physical status classification system or preoperative physical fittness