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ACC-NCDR™
The ACC National Cardiovascular Data Registry Enrolls Over 300
Participants
by Ralph Brindis, MD, MPH, FACC
The demand for accurate data in the field of medicine and in particular cardiovascular disease has been thrust upon us. Hospitals, payers, and governmental agencies are demanding accurate data related to health care operations. The opportunity for the ACC and its members to set definitive standards governing quality of data is obvious, particularly to any of us who have had the opportunity to visit the various health-related websites reporting of the "quality of care" given at various institutions. A cardiologist may find his institution rated at a mediocre level at one website while at another website the same institution may be rated higher. Different healthcare evaluation websites may use very different and arbitrary criteria to create their "report cards."
By participating in the ACC National Cardiovascular Registry (ACC-NCDR™ )hospitals can have and therefore offer truly accurate data to use for internal benchmarking, peer hospital benchmarking and national benchmarking. Until the formation of the ACC-NCDR™ , there was an absence of standardized catheterization laboratory data. Existing data collection mechanisms were of questionable quality. Therefore, the formation of the ACC-NCDR™ seemed to be an appropriate role for the ACC. The Registry was founded based on the need for cardiovascular specialists to respond to the demands of objective assessment of outcomes of care. After a 9-year period of dataset development the ACC-NCDR™ began operations in late 1998.
The Registry goals are to standardize reporting elements, ensure a high quality data collection process, and to obtain a broad representation of care provided. Furthermore the ACC-NCDR™ is able to give timely and useful clinical data to its participants and educate the clinical community on data issues. The ACC-NCDR™ is multi-centered, voluntary, national in scope, and based on a standard data set. It is outcomes-oriented, patient-based, quality-driven, secure and confidential.
The initial focus of the ACC-NCDR™ is on cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The benefits of participation are to aid our members in ensuring quality of patient care via comparisons of their institution to benchmarks for practice patterns, demographics, outcomes and trends. Registry data will also aid participants in preparing reports required for regulatory and credentialing bodies.
The ACC-NCDR™ has produced quarterly and annual reports since it began receiving data in 1998. Quarterly reports include institutional specific data, comparison group averages, and ACC-NCDR™ averages. Additionally, the annual reports include risk-adjusted PCI mortality. The below graph represents a sample of the type of information NCDR™ participants can track over time.
With more than 300 ACC-NCDR™ participants the registry has grown to reflect more than 500,000 patient records. National enthusiasm for the ACC-NCDR™ is growing, with significant interest by many organizations in utilizing the ACC-NCDR™ as its primary mechanism for cath lab quality evaluations. For example, the New York State Dept. of Health Cardiac Advisory Board will be working closely with the ACC-NCDR™ to standardize data elements and definitions. Additionally, several ACC Chapters to include, California, Missouri, Ohio, Florida, and Massachusetts have begun state-wide ACC-NCDR™ enrollment initiatives.
The cost of joining the ACC-NCDR™ is only $1,795 a year or basically similar to the cost of one coronary stent. Additional costs incurred by the hospitals include purchase of ACC-certified software, available from a variety of vendors. These options include a very modestly priced "bare bones" software package with basically the ACC-NCDR™ and STS core data elements alone to much more complex programs. Additional costs are related to the training and use of personnel for the data entry. The amount of personnel required to participate in data entry will vary depending on the type of software package chosen, the hospital’s case volume, and the integration of other hospital information systems and peripherals into the software system.
Confidentiality of the data is of the utmost importance to the ACC-NCDR™ and is protected by a series of policies and procedures to ensure maximum security. Identifiers for patients and physicians are encrypted and access to the database is severely restricted. The certified software products also include data encryption protocols and the ACC provides institutions-specific information only to the respective institution.
The ACC-NCDR™ is governed by the ACC-NCDR™ Oversight Task Force chaired by John Williams, MD, MACC and the Task Force for Clinical Data Standards, chaired by Ralph Brindis, MD, MPH, FACC.
For more information check the ACC website (www.acc.org), call 800-253-4636, ext.451, or email ncdr@acc.org.
Be a part of the ACC-NCDR™
Your institution is invited to join the ACC National Cardiovascular
Data Registry™
(ACC-NCDR™), a clinical registry of cardiology
practice and outcome measures.
The Cardiac Cath Lab Module of the ACC-NCDR™ provides you and your institution with standardized, semi-annual reports that accurately detail the care of your adult patients undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterizations or coronary interventions. These reports will enhance your internal evaluation of these services and will provide you with a comprehensive set of reports and data to compare your performance with other institutions in the U.S.
The Cardiac Cath Lab Module uses standardized data elements that have been widely accepted by cardiologists across the U.S. The Registry provides the first meaningful way to compare institutional performance nationwide.
The ACC-NCDR™ provides the opportunity to assure a lead role in the measurement and improvement of cardiovascular care nationwide. Information provided by the Registry will benefit your institution as well as the ACC.
Please contact the ACC-NCDR™ directly at 800-253-4636, ext. 451 with any questions.