Because of challenges involved in transferring patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms from one facility to another, the Western Vascular Society has adopted a set of 15 guidelines on how to make that decision and help standardize care.
Read about the guidelines plus the selection and development process behind them in the March issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
The SVS Patient Safety Organization has announced the winners of the 2016 VQI Participation Awards. This program, in its second year, recognizes the importance of active participation in the VQI as a critical component of the quality improvement mission. VQI centers may receive up to three “stars,” based on the extent of their participation in three areas: long-term follow-up (LTFU) reporting, regional quality group meetings and vascular procedure registries
The SVS Government Relations office on Capitol Hill, helps members and their patients through not only its legislative and regulatory work but also oversight of the SVS Political Action Committee.
Successes include:
Legislative
A major success after 10 years of advocacy was the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015. This law also reformed Medicare physician payment by creating two payment options that became effective this year.
If veterans who need abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery are fully versed in both open and endovascular procedures, will they be happier with their choice?
To prevent “buyers’ remorse,” a new study at Veteran Administration centers is examining if decision aids can help align patient preference with the type of AAA surgery. Enrollment begins at 20 VA centers in April.
PROVE-AAA – PReference for Open Versus Endovascular AAA Repair – has received $1.1 million in funding from the VA’s Health Services Research and Development branch.
Drs. Peter Gloviczki, Peter Lawrence, Frank Veith and Mike Dalsing all have something in common: they’ve faced a serious complication in surgery, managed it and learned lessons from the experience. With several others, these surgeons will relate their stories at a postgraduate session at the 2017 Vascular Annual Meeting.
The Honorable Thomas Price, MD
Secretary
Department of Health & Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Seema Verma
Administrator
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Department of Health & Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Re: Collecting Data on Resources Used in Furnishing Global Services
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1289","field_deltas":{},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":197,"width":480,"style":"width: 480px; height: 197px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 1px; float: left;","class":"media-image media-element file-media-large","data-delta":"1"},"fields":{}}]]
(Photo credit: JUPITERIMAGES/Thinkstock)