"Failure to Rescue" following Colorectal Cancer Resection: Variation and Improvements in a National Study of Postoperative Mortality: Reducing Mortality after Colorectal Surgery.

Mortality following colorectal cancer resection has halved over the past decade, predominantly driven by improvements in "rescue" from complications. Differences in FTR also drive hospital-level variation in mortality, highlighting the central importance of "rescue" as a target for surgical quality improvement.