BALTIMORE, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — A new position
statement released today by the Society for Cardiovascular
Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) calls for changes in the way
quality of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, also known as
angioplasty) care is measured and publically reported. The position
statement, released during the SCAI 2011 Scientific Sessions and
published online in Catheterization and Cardiovascular
Interventions (CCI), reviews current standards for
public reporting, risk adjustment and the role of volume as an
indicator for quality of care.
Increasingly, policymakers and regulators are evaluating
publically reported quality health care measures in an effort to
curb costs and help improve patient care. However, many of
today’s standards are inadequate for judging the true quality of
care delivered in a hospital or by an individual physician. For
public reporting to facilitate quality improvement that yields
better patient outcomes, clinical data must be accurately and
consistently collected and outcomes must be risk-adjusted to
account for the health of the patient.
“The interventional cardiology community supports the idea that
improved patient outcomes is the primary goal in transforming
health care, because it will improve our patients’ health and
reduce medical costs,” said Lloyd W. Klein, M.D., FSCAI, professor
of Medicine at Rush Medical College and lead author of the
statement. “But to do so, we need to ensure we are collecting and
sharing the best possible information. That means quality measures
that are risk-adjusted and based on clinical data from the
patient’s medical chart.”
The statement recommends quality measures based on:
- Validated risk-adjustment models for mortality and major
complications - 30-day mortality, to follow patients after they leave the
hospital - Clinical data taken from patients’ medical charts, not
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