meet the demands of the increasing number of patients who expect
to know more about the surgeons performing their surgeries and the
facilities where the procedures take place.
Collecting surgical statistics is important, to a point. When Dr.
Makary visits facilities, clinical leaders often tell him they collect
reams of data, but struggle to isolate useful numbers.
"There's a big need in the market for less, but more meaningful
data," says Dr. Makary. "The IHI has been refining the global trigger
tool so it's practical and usable at the bedside to identify real-time
rates of harm without creating a massive reporting burden."
Dr. Makary believes in the power of big data, but cautions against
overemphasizing analytics. "Medicine is complex and surgery is an
art," he says. "Any attempt to oversimplify and reduce it to potential-
ly inaccurate data is
threatening to sur-
geons and can damp-
en their spirit of
improvement."
Incentivizing
the outpatient
movement
Focusing on safer
surgical care might
also help drive more
procedures to outpa-
tient ORs, says Dr.
Campbell. In the
Michigan hospital
partnership, BCBS
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 2 3
