Surgical complication outcome (SCOUT) score: A new method to evaluate quality of care in vascular surgery

Purpose: Surgical outcome data are generally reported as raw morbidity and mortality rates, which do not necessarily reflect quality of surgical care. The Society for Vascular Surgery has led this area with recommendations by the Ad Hoc Committee on Reporting Standards to establish standardized methods of outcome assessment in vascular surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new method for evaluating the overall quality of surgical care, which includes surgeon, nursing, and hospital system performance. The goal of the method is to identify problem areas in surgical practice that can be targeted for focused improvement to improve outcome.