CHICAGO: The American College of Surgeons (ACS), with the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), has released new standards for outpatient vascular centers to help them provide optimal care and treatment of patients receiving vascular surgical and procedural care.
These new standards, outlined in the Optimal Resources for Vascular Surgery and Interventional Care – Outpatient Standards manual, are part of the Vascular Verification Program (Vascular-VP), launched earlier this year by the ACS and SVS. These standards provide the requirements necessary for outpatient vascular centers to achieve and maintain verification for their vascular programs.
“Outpatient facility verification by this program demonstrates to patients, referring physicians, regulators, and payors 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.
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 that provides an evidence-driven, standardized pathway for instituting and growing a quality improvement and clinical care infrastructure within a center’s vascular program.
The release of this new set of standards within Vascular-VP encourages sites to put the same emphasis on quality in outpatient settings that is applied to inpatient settings, as more surgical services are directed to outpatient centers.*
These new Vascular-VP outpatient 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 these standards, outpatient vascular centers can develop the tools necessary to provide safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care to all vascular patients.
Vascular-VP builds upon a long history of ACS quality verification programs. Similar to other ACS quality programs, ACS and SVS sought to evaluate and improve the quality of care for vascular patients with the following elements:
- Program-specific standards
- Infrastructure needed to meet such standards and deliver high-quality, high-value care
- Data collection and analysis
- Verification site visits to ensure proper implementation and maintenance of these components
Centers interested in becoming verified and continuing the quality improvement journey of their vascular service are encouraged to apply online.
Access the full Vascular-VP outpatient standards manual.
More information about Vascular-VP is available on the ACS website.
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*Lin PH, Chandra FA, Shapiro FE, Osman BM, Urman RD, Ahn SS. The Need for Accreditation of Office-Based Interventional Vascular Centers. Ann Vasc Surg. 2017 Jan;38:332-338. DOI: 10.1016/j.avsg.2016.06.010. Epub 2016 Aug 20. PMID: 27554695.
