Outpatient Vascular Standards Are Released

The ACS, with the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), has released new standards to help guide optimal care for patients undergoing vascular surgical and procedural care at outpatient vascular centers.

The standards are outlined in the manual, Optimal Resources for Vascular Surgery and Interventional Care–Outpatient Standards, and provide the requirements necessary for outpatient vascular centers to achieve and maintain verification in the Vascular Verification Program (Vascular-VP), launched earlier this year by the ACS and SVS.

“Outpatient facility verification by this program demonstrates to patients, referring physicians, regulators, and payers that high-quality, high-value vascular care is being delivered. Participants who successfully complete the verification process will be setting the standard for vascular care in their community,” said William P. Shutze, MD, FACS, DFSVS, Chair of the Vascular-VP Outpatient Work Group and a vascular surgeon with Texas Vascular Associates in Plano.

Vascular-VP, which now offers verification for both inpatient and outpatient vascular centers, leverages the strengths and expertise of the ACS and SVS to provide a program with an evidence-driven, standardized pathway for instituting and growing a quality improvement and clinical care infrastructure within a center’s vascular program.

The new standards detail elements of vascular surgical care and quality across nine domains, including:

• Institutional commitment
• Program scope and governance
• Resources for facilities, equipment, services, and personnel
• Clinical care
• Data abstraction and analysis
• Quality improvement

By participating in Vascular-VP and complying with the standards, outpatient vascular centers can develop the tools necessary to provide safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care to all vascular patients.

The new outpatient standards, as well as the inpatient standards, are available at facs.org/vascularstandards.