RT Journal
A1 Farmer DL
T1 Nsqip lite: A potential tool for global comparative effectiveness evaluations
JF Archives of Surgery
JO Archives of Surgery
YR 2012
FD September 1
VO 147
IS 9
SP 803
OP 804
DO 10.1001/archsurg.2012.899
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.2012.899
AB 
The need to compare outcomes across hospitals is of paramount importance to our patients, physicians, and payers. Administrative databases are inherently limited in scope as has been described in several recent articles in this and other journals.1 To date, the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) remains the most robust risk-adjusted and reliable tool available and, most important, the only tool that is readily accepted by most surgeons. A significant problem with NSQIP is that its expense limits the number of participating hospitals and excludes most of our smaller and rural hospitals—hospitals about which one might legitimately wish to ask certain quality and safety questions.