About MSQC

Over a decade ago, Darrell Campbell Jr., MD and leadership from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) embarked on a partnership to improve surgical care across the state of Michigan.

Today, the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative (MSQC) is 69 hospitals strong, improved care for patients, and saved millions of dollars in cost savings. Led by, driven by, and coordinated by surgeons and health care professionals, the MSQC has the infrastructure and regional focus to identify, learn, disseminate and accelerate best practices within the participating hospitals.



What Drives Us

Our Mission

To improve the quality, safety, and value of surgical care in Michigan for all.

Our Vision

To make the state of Michigan the best place for surgical care.

Central Tenets

  • Maintain a Culture of Trust and Respect
  • Engage with Diverse Communities
  • Collect High Quality, Actionable Data
  • Promote Evidence-Based Best Practices
  • Inspire Innovation

 Our Values

  • Integrity and Equality
  • Mutual Respect and Collegiality
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Sincere Communication
  • Compassion and Kindness
  • Excellence in Everything We Do

MSQC is a Patient Safety Organization

The Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative is a listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO), designated by The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This designation requires the highest level of quality and security in the way MSQC gathers, analyzes, and shares data from each of its hospitals.

Listing as a PSO is a validation that data from each participating site is afforded the most appropriate protections. More information on MSQC PSO’s designation can be found here. [LINK]


MSQC is a true collaboration. Our members provide the data and share their ideas. MSQC hosts our robust regional registry to analyze the issues, identify the best practices, and disseminate them widely. Our independence and regional focus give us the flexibility to respond quickly to your cost and quality issues as they arise.

What we do

  • Independence—MSQC has the flexibility to focus on the regional quality issues that concern our membership most to benefit our patients. Together we ACCELERATE action that will improve care.
  • Value to surgeons—Surgeons drive quality improvement. The MSQC is a forum to network with other surgeons and explore opportunities to improve processes of care for surgical patients at their organization. We work to LEVERAGE the contribution from surgeons for this work. In addition, the American Board of Surgeons has recognized the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative as one of the “acceptable programs for practice assessment” necessary for Maintenance of Certification.
  • Multidisciplinary—We welcome surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, quality experts, surgical technologists, administrators, and everyone else involved in providing sustainable, high-quality care. We ENGAGE all of our members for their ideas and input to improve.
  • Inclusive—The MSQC membership range from small community hospital practices to the largest research and teaching hospitals statewide. Each site has ACCESS to its data to POWER improvement.
  • Secure data platform—Fast, flexible, powerful, and HITECH compliant to DISCOVER and refine ACTION our members use to improve care.
  • Best practices—We IDENTIFY specific practices that improve outcomes and save money, supported by real-world evidence.

Benefits for participating hospitals include:

  • Sharing Best Practices—The MSQC regular meetings include presentations by recognized surgical leaders who explain the big picture and its implications for your practice. This provides all members with an important opportunity to engage with peers from across Michigan in efforts to identify, disseminate and implement cutting-edge best surgical practices.
  • Data Analysis—The MSQC hosts, maintains, analyzes the data for you and we report our findings to our participating sites. The Coordinating Center provides onsite training and assistance to make sure the Surgical Clinical Quality Reviewer feel comfortable with our platform.
  • Ongoing Training—Education, Certification, Inter-rater Reliability with onsite training and support are available to all of our member hospitals and their surgical clinical quality reviewers. Regular conference calls and Webinars inform and support the process and people who do this work.
  • Outstanding Service—The MSQC is administered by a coordinating center that is customer-focused to provide outstanding service. We will work with you to maximize the benefits of membership.

BCBSM Partnership

Support for MSQC is provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network as part of the BCBSM Value Partnerships program.

“The Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative has been a powerful force for improving delivery of care across Michigan for all Michigan residents receiving general and vascular surgery. In collaboration with highly committed Coordinating Center leadership, there is a highly engaged surgeon and hospital community working hand-in-glove to address issues of great importance. Without this active collaboration we could have never seen such significant improvements in quality compared to the national averages. A data registry is one thing, a data registry surrounded by a highly engaged physician community that meets on a quarterly basis to share challenges and best practices is a testament to the power of quality improvement among like-minded professionals.”

Tom Leyden, MBA, Director, Value Partnerships, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan


Resources