The mission of UNYSQI is collaboration for the improvement of surgical care in Upstate New York region. Surgeons often ask for additional data to help them learn more about a specific patient population or develop consensus for best practice. The Colectomy Project is our attempt to achieve a more robust picture of a targeted procedure. This project identifies specific procedures and uses relevant data points to describe the patient, their care and outcome. The project incorporates additional fields to give procedure specific data that builds on the existing ACS NSQIP data set. Data analysis will be used to compare patients undergoing colectomies, allowing hospitals to compare their own results with their peers. We will share best practice and using our data will identify quality improvement opportunities.

Since all hospitals are collecting data on general surgery, it was decided to choose a frequently performed procedure, with high potential for morbidity and mortality.

The fields were developed, reviewed and refined by surgeons and staff participating in our collaborative.