March 22, 2010
ABC encourages all readers of our Alerts to familiarize themselves with the Anesthesia Quality Institute, established by the American Society of Anesthesiologists last year and now enrolling practices that wish to compare their clinical and business management performance data to national benchmarks.
We believe that the AQI and its database, the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry, will become vitally important to anesthesia practices as hospitals, health systems, the American Board of Anesthesiology, large groups and payers begin to credential and compensate medical professionals using performance metrics. For this reason, we have worked with the AQI and with clients to prepare to submit their information seamlessly through our F1rst Anesthesia software. We would be pleased to hear from all our clients, present and future, who would like to consider participating in the AQI.
Richard P. Dutton, MD, MBA, the University of Maryland anesthesiologist who serves as the Executive Director of the AQI, provided the following introduction:
Last year the ASA launched an important new initiative for the future of our profession: The Anesthesia Quality Institute. The AQI is a non-profit corporation chartered to construct the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry. The core purpose of NACOR will be to provide benchmarking information for anesthesia practices and practitioners. Participating practices will receive a quarterly report from NACOR that shows how their group compares to other similar groups around the country. Custom reports will also be available.
Reporting will begin with simple data such as the number of physicians, CRNAs, AAs and residents, the number of locations covered, and the typical case-mix. As NACOR matures the possibilities for benchmarking will include case duration and expense, patient satisfaction variables, performance data including PQRI measures and clinical outcomes. Several anesthesia subspecialty organizations are already running their own registries, which will be integrated with the NACOR. In the long run, the NACOR will become an engine for the continual improvement of practice efficiency and patient outcomes, and the AQI itself will be a clearinghouse for best practices.
Membership in the AQI is open to any anesthesiology practice in the United States (not just to ASA members). Data contribution to NACOR will be entirely by ongoing automatic transmission of digitized information. The ‘minimal data set’ required is a basic outline of your practice and the facilities you work with, and case specific information typically required for billing and collections: CPT codes, providers, and times. Initially, these data will come directly from the claims you submit to payers. All data submitted to NACOR will be de-identified for patient, provider, and facility, and the AQI will never identify individual patients, providers, practices or facilities in any report.
Large practice management companies including ABC and vendors of anesthesia information technology systems, including billing systems, practice management systems, and anesthesia information management systems (AIMS), have been enthusiastic in supporting the AQI. Vendors appreciate the need for common definitions of anesthesia outcomes; they recognize that their clients (and ultimately their clients’ patients) will benefit from national benchmarking, and they see the advantage of NACOR data in meeting present and future regulatory requirements. Creating the software routines that will collate and send practice data “up the pipe” to NACOR requires collaboration between the practice, the AQI and the company providing the billing system. It will become progressively easier with each new practice recruited. Many of the largest anesthesia groups in the country are already participating in the AQI, along with many of those with the best local quality management systems.
More information on the AQI, including contact information and instructions for joining, is available at the website: www.aqihq.org.
Over the long term, the AQI is going to make a big difference to and for the specialty. We commend ASA for having recognized the value of investing in a first-class registry, and we hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to participate. Early adopters will have the edge in helping to shape the NACOR.
Sincerely,
Tony Mira
President and CEO
