Strategies to promote reporting of Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures: a pilot survey of anesthesia department leaders

A 12-item pilot survey exploring strategies to promote reporting of SCIP measures was developed and mailed to department of anesthesiology chairs at 1,426 US hospitals. Descriptive statistics and χ2 analysis were used to summarize respondent and survey data.In all, 29.5% of the sample responded to the survey, with 96.9% indicating SCIP participation; 62.5% participated primarily for voluntary reasons, and 4.2% reported an incentive from their hospital as the primary reason for participation.Hospital strategies promoting physician participation in SCIP currently vary. A minority of survey respondents indicated that an incentive was used to encourage adherence to SCIP measures. Further research to optimize such strategies may support future efforts to improve perioperative care.In recent years, the use of financial incentives to drive improvements in the quality of health care has garnered significant attention in the US and abroad [1-3]. The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), initiated on 1 July 2006 [4], provides a mechanism for hospitals to receive financial incentives for efforts to reduce surgical complications, such as surgical site infections, perioperative myocardial infarction, and venous thromboembolism, through improved processes of perioperative care [5]. Current SCIP measures relate to the appropriate use of preoperative antibiotics (selection, timing, and discontinuation), routine venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (ordering and administration), appropriate hair removal practices, perioperative use of beta-blockers, and perioperative normothermia and normoglycemia in selected patients.Medicare payment rules create financial incentives for hospitals to report data on SCIP measures, as hospitals that do not submit data on selected measures are subject to Medicare reimbursement reduction [6]. Per the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, a payment reduction of 2.0 percentage points is implemented for hospitals that fail to report successfully [7]. According