Cardiac surgery outcomes

Accrediting organizations and payers are demanding valid and reliable data that demonstrate the value of services. Federal agencies, healthcare industry groups, and healthcare watchdog groups are increasing the demand for public access to outcomes data. A new and growing outcomes dynamic is the information requested by prospective patients in an increasingly consumer-oriented business. Patients demand outcomes, and resources are developing to meet these demands. Physicians are increasingly confronted with requests for information about their mortality and morbidity rates, malpractice suits, and disciplinary actions received. For example, in Virginia, prospective patients have access to data provided by the nonprofit group Virginia Health Information. After numerous resolutions by the Virginia Senate since 1999, the prospective Virginia medical consumer now has access to several annual publications: Virginia Hospitals: A Consumer's Guide, 1999 Annual Report and Strategic Plan Update, and the 1999 Industry Report: Virginia Hospitals and Nursing Facilities. Consumers have access to cardiac outcomes data stratified by hospital, gender, and cardiac service line (cardiac surgery, noninvasive cardiology, and invasive cardiology). This is particularly relevant to IHI because Virginia Health Information specifically targets cardiac care. IHI has a sizable investment in cardiovascular outcomes and has found outcomes measurement and research are key to providing quality care. IHI's goal is to move from an outcomes management model to a disease management model. The hope is to incorporate all aspects of the patient's continuum of care, from preoperative and diagnostic services through cardiac interventions to postoperative rehabilitation. Furthermore, every step along the way will be supported with functional status and quality of life assessments. Although these goals are ambitious and expensive, the return on investment is high.