More transparency, better care,
and measurable quality
in anaesthesia and surgery.
Despite the high standards of the Swiss healthcare system, there is currently no national registry collecting outcome data for perioperative procedures. Available data are incomplete, retrospective, or only partially usable. The true frequency of anaesthesia- and surgery-related complications and deaths in Switzerland remains unknown and is often underestimated. Moreover, hospitals currently lack the ability to evaluate their outcomes in a national comparison. SOCAS addresses this gap by enabling greater transparency, data-driven quality improvement, and strategic alignment with national healthcare goals. The results are provided both to participating hospitals through individualised reports and to national stakeholders and the public in the form of aggregated, anonymised reports.
Objectives
- Primary objective: Quantification of in-hospital and 180-day mortality following anaesthesia.
- Secondary objectives: Recording intra- and postoperative complications (e.g. delirium, prolonged hospital stay), analysing risk factors (patient, surgical, anaesthetic), and comparing results between different clinics and A-CERT-certified centres.
- Additional objectives: Supporting benchmarking, developing quality indicators, and providing data-driven feedback to foster quality improvement.
Benefits for hospitals and the healthcare system
- Transparency regarding individual results compared to the national average
- Early identification of areas for improvement
- Evidence-based foundation for internal and external quality initiatives
- Contribution to the development and implementation of national standards and strategies