A comparison of NSQIP and CESQIP in data quality and ability to predict thyroidectomy outcomes

Abstract

Background: The Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program tracks thyroidectomy outcomes with self-reported data, whereas the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program uses professional abstractors. We compare completeness and predictive ability of these databases at a single-center and national level.

Method: Data consistency in the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program at a single institution (2013-2020) was evaluated using McNemar's test. At the national level, data from the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2016-2019) were used to compare predictive capability for 4 outcomes within each data source: thyroidectomy-specific complication, systemic complication, readmission, and reoperation, as measured by area under curve.

Results: In the single-center analysis, 66 cases were recorded in both the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. The reoperation variable had the most discrepancies (2 vs 0 in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program versus the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program, respectively; χ² = 2.00, P = .16). At the national level, there were 24,942 cases in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and 17,666 cases in the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program. In the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, 30-day thyroidectomy-specific complication, systemic complication, readmission, and reoperation were 13.25%, 2.13%, 1.74%, and 1.39%, respectively, and in the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program 7.27%, 1.95%, 1.64%, and 0.81%. The area under curve of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program was higher for predicting readmission (0.721 [95% confidence interval 0.703-0.737] vs 0.613 [0.581-0.649]); the area under curve of the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program was higher for thyroidectomy-specific complication (0.724 [0.708-0.737] vs 0.677 [0.667-0.687]) and reoperation (0.735 [0.692-0.775] vs 0.643 [0.611-0.673]). Overall, 3.44% vs 27.22% of values were missing for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program, respectively.

Conclusion: The Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program was more accurate in predicting thyroidectomy-specific complication and reoperation, underscoring its role in collecting granular, disease-specific variables. However, a higher proportion of data are missing. The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program infrastructure leads to more rigorous data capture, but the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program is better at predicting thyroid-specific outcomes.