We Don’t Need More Data. We Need Data That Means Something.
How the new Epic–ACS partnership could finally turn surgical quality reporting into a system-level engine for better care
We’ve been told for years that we’re in a data-rich healthcare environment. And yes we have data, but raw data isn’t knowledge. And it sure as hell isn’t insight.
Take a common surgery, laparoscopic appendectomy. If a patient undergoes surgery and comes back to the OR three days later with a perforated bowel, that’s not just “two surgeries.” That’s a clinical story and one that any decent quality program should flag. It is also something that the American College of Surgeons wants to incorporate into their quality databases that hundreds of hospitals submit to every year.
But in most health systems today, making that connection and recording that abstracted data requires a human being to dig through the chart, spot the linkage, and type it into a form. Why? Because “return to OR for related complication” isn’t a checkbox. It’s a concept. One that requires connecting diagnoses, procedures, timing, complications, and clinical reasoning.
The Status Quo: Manual, Fragmented, and Wasteful
For decades, programs like NSQIP, NCDR, cancer registries and dozens if not hundreds of other societies and accrediting programs have asked hospitals to extract and submit data manually, often re-entering information that already exists somewhere in the system. It’s tedious. It’s duplicative. And it drains countless hours of effort for marginal return.
Most organizations do it because they have to. They need that merit badge. But this effort rarely helps the organization systematically get better. The data is collected and **poof** the effort is lost to the requesting organization.
In return, they get benchmark reports…months later. It’s a glacial feedback loop. There is no real-time insight. No operational PDSA cycle stems from the labor.
The Shift: Epic and ACS Build Meaning Into the System
That’s why the recent announcement from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) is such a big deal.
In a new partnership with Epic, the ACS will begin using Epic’s Community Registries Platform as the official data pipeline for quality programs like NSQIP, NSQIP Pediatric, and the Bariatric Surgery registry.
Rather than submitting manually, participating organizations can now leverage their Epic infrastructure to:
Automate complex abstractions
Construct meaningful concepts from existing data
Use those same data models to drive internal analytics and decision support
In short, the data we used to fill spreadsheets on someone’s laptop now lives directly in Epic. This will ease data collection and potentially transform the operational feedback loop.
Why It Matters: Semantics, Not Just Syntax
Here’s the real innovation: this isn’t just form simplification and facilitation of the abstraction workflow.
It’s semantic alignment, turning structured clinical events into clinically meaningful concepts.
Epic’s registry platform doesn’t just grab CPTs and ICD-10s. It can use its Registry and Rule infrastructure to automate identifying a “return to OR” event, detect a “surgical site infection,” or flag a “readmission related to index procedure.” And because it’s embedded in your EHR, it’s connected to the actual timeline of care. The same concepts can be applied to “chemotherapy complication,” “post-thrombolytic bleed,” “functional outcome post joint replacement” and hundreds or thousands of other valuable, semantically rich data points.
This solves the dual problem that’s haunted quality measurement for years:
Data that is fragmented or incomplete
Data that is hidden, misaligned or meaningless without human interpretation
By partnering directly with Epic, the ACS is one of the first organizations to redesign how they ask for data instead of just digitizing old forms.
Beyond Surgery: The Blueprint for Broader Change
As I’ve noted, what’s exciting is that this isn’t limited to surgery.
Other specialty societies and accrediting bodies (eg: cardiology (ACC), oncology (ASCO/NCI), orthopedics (AAOS), stroke (AHA)) all rely on similar types of data and abstraction processes. Until now, they’ve largely stuck with the old way: manual abstraction, siloed submission, delayed insights.
This partnership shows the path I would like to see as we move forward:
Embed registries inside the EMR
Align data definitions with clinical reality
Use what’s already being documented
Feed both external benchmarks and internal improvements
From Registry to Real-Time Quality Engine
This changes the ROI math.
When you invest in Epic’s registry framework, you’re not just checking boxes for ACS, AHA, STS or any of the dozens of other reporting agencies. You’re building a live feedback system that lets you answer critical operational questions.:
Which surgeons or services have high return-to-OR rates?
Are there patterns in complications across specific procedures?
Can we proactively intervene before things escalate?
This is what quality improvement should look like. Not a report to get a fancy badge for your marketing campaign. It becomes fuel for a continuous learning loop.
Let’s Put This Into Action
If you're an Epic shop, the tools are already there (or soon will be).
And if you're tired of spending resources on data you can't use, now is the time to shift.
I help organizations configure, align, and operationalize Epic’s registry tools so they not only meet submission requirements but actually drive clinical and operational improvement.
If you're ready to turn registries into real-time engines of insight, let’s talk.
👉 Contact Me at johnlee@hitpeakadvisors.com.