Letter From The 2019 Chairman Of The Board: Rawn Salenger, MD

Letter from Chairman of the Board

Rawn Salenger, MD Chief, Cardiac Surgery UM St. Joseph Medical Center

The Maryland Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative, now in our sixth year, continues to strive to fulfill our mission to continuously improve the clinical quality of cardiac surgery provided in the state of Maryland through data analysis, research, and education. Collaboration among surgeons, cardiovascular service line administrators, data managers, perfusionists and other providers from the ten cardiac surgery programs in the state is the backbone to our ongoing improvements. The passion and dedication of the cardiac surgery community in the state of Maryland is what makes the organization successful, and I want to extend my deep appreciation for all involved. Active engagement is critical to the ongoing accomplishments of MCSQI.Dear Colleagues,

The Key Initiatives adopted for 2019 and 2020 through our strategic planning process include:

• Readmission Reduction
• Understanding Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation Variability
• Cost Analysis and Improving Value

We will continue to focus on these initiatives with the ultimate goal of researching best practices, developing recommendations, educating our members, and encouraging implementation. This past year significant progress was made in the area of Readmission Reduction under the leadership of Glenn Whitman, MD, Chair of the MCSQI Quality Committee, with adoption of critical process elements that distinguished top performing programs. Determining the key elements for reducing readmissions evolved as result of rigorous data analysis and sharing of individual program practice protocols. This report highlights progress made with this initiative and others.

Maryland’s Total Cost of Care reimbursement model along with rapidly evolving cardiovascular technical innovations make it crucial to understand cost variability and the value of care. Through collaboration with the Maryland Health Care Commission we have been able to link state level cost data with our Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) clinical outcomes data. This has allowed us to make significant progress in identifying the drivers of cost variability among cardiac surgery programs. Efforts to identify areas of appropriate cost reduction allow us to work on normalizing cost while maintaining high quality of patient care.

In addition, MCSQI has gained access to a significantly larger clinical outcomes database by joining the IMPROVE Network, a collaborative of 90 cardiac surgery programs from around the United States. This collaboration enhances our outcomes research engagement on a national level.

This annual report provides supporting data that demonstrates the positive results of collaboration among key stakeholders and our commitment to MCSQI’s mission that ultimately improves the lives of our patients. I hope you benefit from the information included and encourage you to share the report with your team.

Sincerely,

Rawn Salenger, MD
Chairman, MCSQI
Chief of Cardiac Surgery
UM Saint Joseph Medical Cente5