Salem Health earns three stars in Vascular Quality Initiative Registry Participation Award Program

Only institution in PNW region of 41 to receive highest ranking at May regional meeting

The Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI) has awarded Salem Health three stars for its active involvement 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 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 at 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.

“Our vascular surgery team uses VQI data to measure our effectiveness and to improve our long-term patient care,” said Tim Hodges, MD, Medical Director of Vascular Surgery. “In 2020 we were in the lowest category in several metrics. With teamwork and discussion of our data at our Vascular Section meetings, we have moved to the top three in every category and the best, in some — for instance, we were the best in the PNW region, out of 41 institutions, for reporting aneurysm size in follow up visits. Our length of stay and patient outcomes have significantly improved as well. I credit the entire team of surgeons, Advanced Practice caregivers, clinic, operating room and cath lab staff, data abstraction and analysis, nursing staff, as well as Salem Health administration support.”

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 Salem Health are key to the success of the vascular registries,” said VQI Medical Director Dr. Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen. “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.’”

Operating under the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Vascular Quality Initiative is composed of 14 registries containing demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 1,000,000 vascular procedures performed nationwide and in Canada. The mission of VQI is to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness and cost of vascular health care.

VQI Regional meeting is held twice a year. Our region consists of Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Salem Health was the only one to achieve three stars in the participation award.