SVS Launches Vascular Verification Program to Enhance Quality Improvement

August 20, 2021—The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), in partnership with the American College of Surgeons (ACS), announced the future launch of a program to verify quality offered by vascular care facilities: the Vascular Center Verification and Quality Improvement Program (VCV & QIP).

Kim Hodgson, MD, who is SVS Past President, announced the VCV & QIP during his Presidential Address on August 19 at the SVS 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

Explaining the purpose of the initiative, SVS Executive Director Kenneth M. Slaw, PhD, stated in the press release, “The SVS and ACS are working together to better define and verify high-quality and efficient care for vascular patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings. The long-range goal is to have all SVS members actively engaged in quality improvement initiatives and to have this work recognized by government and private payers in efforts to reduce administrative burden through more streamlined prior authorization.”

According to the SVS press release, the society’s aim in developing the verification process and program is to indicate to patients that program reviewers investigated and verified a particular institution’s quality improvement process and that it follows high standards and protocols. The verification assures patients that the centers provide high-quality patient care conducive to excellent patient care.

SVS leaders advised that it is difficult for both governmental and nongovernmental agencies (including third-party payers) to determine quality and appropriateness. Thus, SVS opted to define quality and appropriateness as value for the vascular specialty. The involvement of vascular experts in defining quality and appropriateness has been pivotal in building a quality infrastructure to support members throughout the ever-changing health care landscape.

The announcement noted that the SVS/ACS VCV & QIP’s mission is to drive quality and value by guiding vascular centers to leverage the infrastructure necessary to perform vascular procedures in an environment that is safe and conducive to excellent patient outcomes and to be a leader in vascular quality improvement.

At its core, VCV & QIP follows six National Quality Strategies to align organizational functions to drive improvement based on the aims and priorities of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The areas are:

• Measurement and feedback with required registry participation
• Certification, accreditation, and regulation with required facility regulation
• Consumer incentives and benefit designs with thorough discussion of treatment options and consent
• Health information technology, working with outside software for continuation of care
• Innovation and diffusion with research
• Work force development with the capability of resident training

The SVS announcement stated that, like all ACS QIPs, the VCV & QIP began with the development of the program’s standards, which are factors felt to be critical to the success of a program and against which a program is evaluated.

When the standards were formulated, Dr. Hodgson and Anton Sidawy, MD, identified potential inpatient and outpatient pilot sites to apply the standards to real-world practices and fine tune them if needed.

In April, surgeons visited the first pilot site, the Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York.

R. Clement Darling III, MD, who is from the Albany Medical Center and is a former SVS President, commented in the announcement, “The verification of inpatient and outpatient vascular centers is an important step in recognition of our specialized and distinct service to our patients and our health care systems. The verification process was valuable to help us to understand what we need to provide the best longitudinal vascular care for our patients and will provide a roadmap to help institutions and payers understand the infrastructure needed to establish and maintain a comprehensive vascular service.”

In addition, Dr. Darling stated that verification, “will demonstrate to patients and providers that we are following standards and established protocols that have been peer-reviewed for their benefit by specialty trained vascular specialists/surgeons. I thought the process was comprehensive, fair, educational, and a true benefit to our patients and our specialty of vascular surgery.”

According to SVS, the VCV & QIP requires institutions to examine and validate processes that should lead to (1) external credibility, (2) improvement in quality, (3) enhanced organization learning, (4) high staff effectiveness, and (5) decreased liability cost and mitigating risk of adverse events.

William Shutze, MD, discussed the experience as a pilot site at the Baylor Scott & White Heart Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

“In preparation for the SVS/ACS vascular center verification site visit, we underwent a comprehensive self-examination that identified our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for quality improvement,” commented Dr. Shutze in the SVS announcement. “We were then able to leverage the motivation of all of the stakeholders in our facility, strongly desiring the recognition this verification brings, to endorse, support, and enact the necessary measures to achieve designation as a verification center but more importantly, to elevate the quality of care our patients receive. This was only accomplished because we applied to be verified under this novel program. On behalf of myself and my colleagues at The Heart Hospital Plano (Texas), I encourage everyone to apply for verification.”

The Michigan Vascular Center in Flint, Michigan, participated as the first office-based lab (OBL) in the pilot phase.

“The Michigan Vascular Center opened its first OBL in 2005 and opened a second in 2013,” stated Robert Molnar, MD, in the SVS press release. He added that the centers have been accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care for more than 8 years.

Dr. Molnar continued, “Our focus was always on providing care that was equivalent and even superior to that provided in the hospital setting. We felt that accreditation was important to signify our level of commitment to quality and best practice standards. When the SVS/ACS announced a vascular-specific verification program for OBLs, we wanted to participate and have our program evaluated to ensure we were providing the best possible care with the highest quality. The process allowed us to analyze what we had established and provided a process to reaffirm our commitment to quality and our patients.”

In the coming months, SVS and ACS will finalize the standards and infrastructure to provide vascular facilities with easy access to resources to guide them in applying for verification, noted the announcement from SVS.