Singapore General Hospital is among the world leaders in achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care.

Singapore General Hospital’s (SGH) improvements to its surgical quality standards have been recognised by the American College of Surgeons under its renowned National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). This places SGH among the world’s top hospitals for surgical treatments and care.

Just 90 out of 706 hospitals worldwide made the 2020 list of meritorious hospitals, after various data, such as the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures, were analysed.

“We wanted to have a methodology that uses robust, actionable data to measure and improve the quality of our patient care. Taking part in the NSQIP is an important way to safeguard the well-being of our patients,” said Associate Professor Tan HiangKhoon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Future Health System), SGH, and former Chairman, Division of Surgery and Surgical Oncology, SGH.

The NSQIP uses evidence-based measures developed by surgeons to evaluate clinical data from patients’ medical charts 30 days after surgery. The hospitals were assessed and commended based on their composite score in eight clinical areas, including mortality,
unplanned intubation and surgical site infection.

Studies have found that hospitals under the NSQIP can prevent 250 to 500 complications every year. SGH, which was assessed and recognised under the ‘high risk’ category, had submitted data for high-risk cases for three consecutive years, from 2018 to 2020.

SGH performs about 10,000 day and inpatient surgeries each year. The high volume of procedures gives its surgeons the opportunity to continuously hone their skills, resulting in better outcomes for patients.