Commit to improving the quality of patient care. through the STS National Database.

(1)

Commit to improving the quality of patient care

(2)

The STS National Database

™

_{was established in}

1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and

patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons.

The Database has since grown exponentially,

both in terms of participation and stature,

and has become the gold standard for

clinical registries.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons believes that

physicians are in the best position to measure

clinical performance accurately and objectively.

That’s why the Society invites you to participate

in the STS National Database.

™

(3)

Benefits of Participation:

• Helps improve patient outcomes;

• Identifies initiatives and new areas for

quality improvement;

• Documents the quality of care delivered by

your practice;

• Enables risk modeling of major procedures;

• Offers access to data for assessment of

new technology and techniques;

• Provides the option to publicly report your

CABG and AVR composite star ratings; and

• Meets the ABTS Maintenance of

Certification Part IV – Evaluation of

Performance in Practice.

The STS National Database has three

components, each focusing on a different

area of cardiothoracic surgery—Adult

Cardiac Surgery, Congenital Heart Surgery,

and General Thoracic Surgery—and all of

which offer international participation.

(4)

The STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database is world’s

premier clinical registry for adult cardiac surgery.

Launched in 1989, the Database contains more than

5 million cardiac surgery procedure records and

currently has more than 3,000 participating surgeons.

Participation offers:

• A standardized format for data collection to assess the care of adult patients undergoing cardiac procedures;

• Quarterly performance outcomes reports in a risk-adjusted format that allows comparison of local outcomes to regional benchmarks and national standards;

• An optional anesthesiology component, which enhances data collection and quality assessment for improving the operative care of patients undergoing cardiac surgery;

• An optional Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Module, which is used to collect and benchmark data for the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation; • Analysis of major outcomes and process-of-care measures that

impact adult cardiac surgery patients; • Composite measure scores for isolated

CABG surgery and isolated AVR –

additional composite measures to be released periodically; and

• Risk profiles of patients benchmarked against national standards.

Annual fees are listed at www.sts.org/database-fees.

“ About 95% of U.S. programs that perform adult cardiac

surgery participate in the ACSD, so we have a rich opportunity

to use that data and learn improvement techniques.”

– Richard L. Prager, MD; Ann Arbor, MI

(5)

The STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database is the

largest database in North America dealing with

congenital cardiac malformations. Launched in 2002,

the Database contains more than 275,000 congenital

heart surgery procedure records and currently has

more than 650 participating physicians, including

surgeons and anesthesiologists.

Participation offers:

• A standardized format for data collection to assess the care of patients undergoing congenital cardiothoracic procedures;

• Semi-annual performance outcomes reports in a format that allows comparison of local outcomes against

national standards;

• An optional anesthesiology component, which enhances data collection and quality assessment for improving the care of patients undergoing cardiothoracic procedures and surgery;

• Analysis of major outcomes and process-of-care

measures that impact congenital heart surgery patients; and • Complexity scoring to evaluate the clinical characteristics of

your practice.

Annual fees are listed at www.sts.org/database-fees.

“ With an 86.4% penetrance, the CHSD allows any program to

benchmark their individual institutional outcomes to national

aggregate data and therefore facilitates quality improvement.”

– Jeffrey P. Jacobs, MD; St. Petersburg, FL

(6)

The STS General Thoracic Surgery Database is

the largest clinical thoracic surgical database in the

United States. Launched in 2002, this Database

contains more than 345,000 general thoracic surgery

procedure records and currently has more than 800

participating surgeons.

Participation offers:

• A standardized format for examining the care of patients undergoing major general thoracic operations;

• An optional minimum dataset for minor procedure tracking; • Semi-annual performance outcomes reports in a risk-adjusted

format that allows comparison of local outcomes against regional benchmarks and national standards;

• Composite measures for general thoracic surgery procedures to be released in the near future; and

• Risk profiles of patients benchmarked against national standards.

Annual fees are listed at www.sts.org/database-fees.

“ Participation in the GTSD allows us to compare how

we’re doing with our colleagues, and, since nobody’s

perfect, we can always find something to improve—

for example,too much blood usage or air leaks that are

too long in duration.”

– Mark S. Allen, MD; Rochester, MN

(7)

1. Complete an STS Participant Contact Form

The Contact Form provides STS with basic demographic information for all individuals who will be involved in the Database and can be found at www.sts.org/participate.

2. Complete the Participation Agreement and Business

Associate Contract and Data Use Agreement

Once STS receives the Contact Form, the Participation Agreement and Business Associate Contract and Data Use Agreement will be sent to the contact provided.

3. Purchase STS CERTIFIED SOFTWARE™ or

STS HARVEST COMPLIANT SOFTWARE™

Each potential STS National Database participant will need to purchase commercial software in order to submit surgical procedures to the STS data warehouse and analysis center, Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). For a full list of vendors, visit www.sts.org/database-vendors.

4. Submit Data during Harvest Submission

Each of the three STS National Databases has its respective timeline for data harvests, which can be found at www.sts.org/participate.

More Information

To learn more about participation, visit www.sts.org/participate or contact Gerry Tarafa, Operations Manager, STS National Database, at [email protected] or (312) 202-5858.

STS Membership

To take advantage of lower participation fees as an

STS member, you must apply for membership at

www.sts.org/membership or contact Sarah Foreman,

Member Services Coordinator, at [email protected]

or (312) 202-5895.

(8)

The Society of Thoracic Sur

geons

633 N. Saint Clair Str

eet, Floor 23

Chicago, IL 60611-3658