The historical evolution of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

摘要

The intent of this article is to provide historical information limited to the early phases of the work and the recall of the many participants involved in the development of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VA NSQIP). This article is meant to fill in a 13-year historical reference gap from the enactment of Public Law 99-166 in December, 1985 to publications related to VA NSQIP beginning in 1998.In 1984, to obtain the necessary VA authority to measure VA surgical care in comparison with private sector surgical care, Dr Gerald McDonald, then Associate Director of Surgery in the VA Central Office, initiated a request to Congress for enactment of a public law. Dr McDonald stated that his initiative was not due to external or internal criticism of a presumed high VA operative mortality (personal communication).