About

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Quality Improvement Committee has created a series of toolkits for vascular surgeons for patient-reported outcomes, or PROs. A PRO is any report of the status of a patient’s (or person’s) health condition, health behavior, or experience with healthcare that comes directly from the patient, without interpretation of the patient’s response by a clinician or anyone else.

There are several types of PROs, satisfaction scores and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). HRQOL is most commonly used because it is less subjective. HRQOL assesses how a disease and its treatment affect the physical, psychological and/or social aspects of life. 

The domains of quality of life used to measure PROs are:

• Symptoms 
• Pain
• Psychological symptoms (i.e. anxiety, depression)
• Effect of social activities
• Functional status

Toolkits

• PROs Toolkit: Basics of Survey Administration and Data Collection
  •  Resources regarding PROs-related survey administration and data collection.
• PROs Toolkit: Inventory of Existing PROs
  • Resources regarding the inventory of existing PROs.
• PROs Toolkit: Psychometric Properties
  • Resources regarding the psychometric properties of PROs.

Reference Library 

• Current status of patient-reported outcome measures in vascular surgery
• Supplemental Materials

If you have questions, please email svsquality@vascularsociety.org.

The PDFs linked below are resources for vascular surgeons regarding the psychometric properties of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). These resources have been assembled and provided by the members of the SVS Quality Improvement Committee. If you have questions, please email svsquality@vascularsociety.org. 

• Why PROM?
  
  

  The image above is featured in the Why PROM? PDF. Click the link above to learn more.

   

• Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Symptomatic, Non–Limb-Threatening Peripheral Artery Disease: A State-of-the-Art Review
• Patient-reported outcome measures in patients with peripheral arterial disease: a systematic review of psychometric properties

The PDFs linked below are resources for vascular surgeons regarding the inventory of existing patient-reported outcomes (PROs). These resources have been assembled and provided by the members of the SVS Quality Improvement Committee. If you have questions, please email svsquality@vascularsociety.org. 

• General
  • SF-36
  • Promis
• Disease-specific instruments:
  • PAD
    • Vascular Quality of Life Questionnaire-6 facilitates health-related quality of life assessment in peripheral arterial disease
      • Walking Impairment Questionnaire
  • Aneurysm
    • The Aneurysm Dependent Quality of life (AneurysmDQoL)
  • Venous
    • AVVQ-Varicose Veins QOL
    • VCSS-Pre and post-venous surgery
  • Hemodialysis
    • Vascular Access Questionnaire (VAQ)
  • Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
    • Cervical Brachial Symptom Questionnaire
  • Wounds
    • Wound-QoL-17 questionnaire on quality of life with chronic wounds
  • Lymphedema
    • Lymph quality of life measure for limb lymphedema (LYMQOL)  
    • A specific quality of life scale in upper limb lymphedema: The ULL-27 questionnaire
    • Lymphedema Functioning, Disability and Health Questionnaire (Lymph-ICF)

The PDFs linked below are resources for vascular surgeons regarding survey administration and data collection when it comes to patient-reported outcomes (PROs). These resources have been assembled and provided by the members of the SVS Quality Improvement Committee. If you have questions, please email svsquality@vascularsociety.org. 

• Implementing PRO Collection into Clinical Practice

The image above is featured in the Implementing PRO Collection into Clinical Practice PDF. Click the link above to learn more.  

• Pathways PROs 101

The above image is a slide featured in the Pathways PROS 101 pdf/slideshow. Click the link above to learn more. 

Why is the Vascular Verification Program Important for Your Institution? 

With the confounding issues facing healthcare c-suites today, it can be difficult to impress how the Vascular Verification Program works strategically to improve outcomes for the patient and hospital by prioritizing efforts to increase effective and efficient delivery of care—reducing risk for post-operative negative consequences. 

Please download this PowerPoint to help facilitate the conversation or contact SVSQuality@vascularsociety.org to schedule a consultation with one of our SVS Vascular Verification leaders to discuss working with your c-suite.

Download Here

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) are pleased to present the Vascular Verification Program, a national quality verification program focused on the care and treatment of patients receiving vascular surgical and interventional care in an inpatient or outpatient setting.

Recognizing the depth and breadth of scope in the areas of vascular care and treatment, this program provides an evidence-driven, standardized pathway for establishing and growing the quality improvement and clinical care infrastructure within your vascular program.

With two levels of participation to engage vascular programs across the spectrum of care, the Vascular Verification Program offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress your center's vascular care program has made thus far and focus on how to continuously improve quality within the program in the future.

Become a Vascular-VP Center

As a program uniquely focused on the care of vascular surgical and interventional patients in an inpatient or outpatient setting, the Vascular Verification Program offers an opportunity to chart the progress of your center's program while also setting benchmarks and goals to continue the quality improvement journey of vascular science. 

Apply Now

Review the May 2023 Webinar

Watch the May 2023 webinar to learn more about Vascular-VP from the leaders. 

If you have questions about the Vascular Verification Program, please contact us at vascular@facs.org.