With an increasing number of procedures transitioning to office and outpatient settings, the Society for Vascular Surgery has created the new member Section on Outpatient and Office Vascular Care (SOOVC), specifically geared to clinicians who work in these environments.
The SOOVC is designed to increase awareness, education and representation of the movement to outpatient and office-based settings.
Past President R. Clement Darling spearheaded the initiative and the response (approximately 130 members joining with the first few months) has been “tremendous,” said section Chair Deepak Nair, M.D. “Clearly we are meeting a need.”
Section members want to raise awareness, particularly “within our house of vascular surgery” on the ongoing shift to more minimally invasive surgical procedures, many of them done outside of hospitals, said Dr. Nair. Members in academic research environments or employed by large hospital systems, in particular, may not be cognizant of this paradigm change, he said.
Representation and education are important goals as well. “We have a large number of members in community-practice settings and other hospital-based specialists who increasingly perform more outpatient procedures and office-based care,” he said. “This big group is continuing to grow and now has representation.”
And education “from the ground floor up” is required. Though the clinical indications and treatment options for care are the same, components as basic as billing and coding are very different, as are practice patterns and equipment choices, said Dr. Nair. Representation and education can play important roles in supporting a move into the outpatient realm, he said. “There’s always a way to go into inpatient care, but it’s not as intuitive to go the other way. The new section absolutely can help.”
Leaders also stress diversity and inclusivity. They welcome all who work in outpatient and office settings as section members. Dr. Nair touts the tremendous diversity in geography and practice setting within the SOOVC. “Some have angio-suites, some do not, some are academic, and some are in private practice and some don’t do any inpatient care. This variety is very important as it demonstrates the breadth of practice types within our Society,” he said.
Other members of the SOOVC Executive Committee are Drs. Clifford Sales (vice chair), Ellen Derrick, Robert Molnar, Brad Thomas, Boulos Toursarkissian and Maureen Sheehan.