The Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI) has awarded the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute three stars for its active participation in the Registry Participation Program.

The mission of the SVS VQI is to improve patient safety and the quality of vascular care delivery by providing web-based collection, aggregation, and analysis of clinical data submitted in registry format for all patients undergoing specific vascular treatments. The VQI operates 14 vascular registries.

The participation awards program began in 2016 to encourage active participation in the registries program and recognize the importance of that participation.

• Participating centers can earn up to three stars based on actions that lead to better patient care, including:
• The completeness of long-term, follow-up reporting, based on the percentage of patients for whom they have at least nine months of follow-up data
• Physician attendance at semi-annual meetings of a regional quality group
• Initiation of quality improvement activities based on VQI data
• The number of vascular registries in which the center participates

VQI’s registries contain demographic, clinical, procedural, and outcomes data from more than 1,000,000 vascular procedures performed in the United States, Canada, and Singapore. Each record includes information from the patient’s initial hospitalization and one-year follow-up.

The wealth of data allows centers and providers to compare their performance to regional and national benchmarks. All centers and providers receive biannual dashboards and regular performance reports, so they can use their data to support quality improvement initiatives.

“For the sixth consecutive year, the VQI awarded our Division the top three-star rating,” Pamela Zimmerman, M.D., chief of Vascular Surgery at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, said. “We are proud to provide leadership within our state and region to improve the quality of evidence-based care for vascular patients.”

Biannual regional meetings allow physicians of different specialties, nurses, data managers, quality officers, and others to meet, share information and ideas, and learn from each other in a
positive and supportive environment. Members have used VQI data to significantly improve the delivery of vascular care at local, regional, and national levels, reducing complications and expenses.
“Hard-working, dedicated organizations such as the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute are key to the success of the vascular registries,” VQI Medical Director Dr. Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, said. “The work we do to build and maintain the registries for researcher use is crucial to health and outcomes for vascular patients. Like the old saying says, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’”