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Background: Surgical quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) aim to improve patient outcomes through coaching, benchmarked data reporting, and other activities. Although other regional QICs have formed organically over time, it is unknown whether a comprehensive quality improvement program implemented simultaneously across hospitals at the formation of a QIC would improve patient outcomes., Study Design: Patients undergoing surgery at 48 hospitals in the Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC) were included. Risk-adjusted rates of postoperative morbidity and mortality were compared from baseline to year 3. Difference-in-differences analyses compared ISQIC hospitals with hospitals in the NSQIP Participant Use File (PUF), which served as a control., Results: There were 180,582 patients who underwent surgery at ISQIC-participating hospitals. Inpatient procedures comprised 100,219 (55.5%) cases. By year 3, risk-adjusted rates of death or serious morbidity decreased in both ISQIC (relative reduction 25.0%, p < 0.001) and PUF hospitals (7.8%, p < 0.001). Adjusted difference-in-differences analysis revealed that ISQIC participation was associated with a significantly greater reduction in death or serious morbidity (odds ratio 0.94, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.99, p = 0.01) compared with PUF hospitals. Relative reductions in risk-adjusted rates of other outcomes were also seen in both ISQIC and PUF hospitals (morbidity 22.4% vs 6.4%; venous thromboembolism 20.0% vs 5.0%; superficial surgical site infection 27.3% vs 7.7%, all p < 0.05), although these difference-in-differences did not reach statistical significance., Conclusions: Although complication rates decreased at both ISQIC and PUF hospitals, participation in ISQIC was associated with a significantly greater improvement in death or serious morbidity. These results underscore the potential of QICs to improve patient outcomes., (Copyright © 2023 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

COVID-19 has resulted in significant disruptions in cancer care. The Illinois Cancer Collaborative (ILCC), a statewide multidisciplinary cancer collaborative, has developed expert recommendations for triage and management of colorectal cancer when disruptions occur in usual care. Such recommendations would be applicable to future outbreaks of COVID-19 or other large-scale disruptions in cancer care., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background and Objectives: Recommendations to refer pancreatic procedures to high-volume centers have been in place for a decade. We sought to determine whether regionalization of pancreatic procedures to high-volume centers is occurring in Illinois., Methods: We compared pancreatic procedures performed in Illinois hospitals from 2000 to 2004 [time period (TP) 1] versus 2005-2009 (TP2) for changes in inpatient mortality and hospital volume. Hospitals were categorized into low- (LVH), intermediate- (IVH), or high-volume (HVH)., Results: From TP1 to TP2, there was a 23% increase in absolute case volume (2,232-2,737), despite fewer hospitals performing pancreatic procedures (114-95). In hospital mortality decreased (5.5-3.3%, P < 0.01) and was lowest at HVHs. LVHs and IVHs were associated with a 4.7 and 3.0 higher odds of mortality, respectively (both P < 0.001). Overall, HVHs performed 659 (+73%) more procedures, whereas cumulative procedure volume dropped by 154 cases at LVHs (+1%) and IVHs (-18%)., Conclusions: We observed limited evidence of regionalization of pancreatic procedures in Illinois. The increase in HVH case volume cannot be solely attributed to regionalization, given the corresponding modest decrease seen at non-HVHs. There is opportunity for Illinois hospitals to implement strategies such as selective referral to improve mortality after pancreatic resection., (Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)