Following the pioneering efforts of Dr. Alfred Blalock at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1940’s and Dr. Joseph McLaughlin at University of Maryland in the 1970’s, the development of the Maryland Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative (MCSQI) is probably the single most important advancement in the history of organization of cardiovascular medicine in the state of Maryland. The future of cardiac surgery in Maryland is dependent on statewide hospital and physician collaboration and sharing of “best practices.
Dr. Kurt Wehberg
Peninsula Medical Regional Center
In 2013 Maryland created a statewide cardiovascular quality initiative providing a platform for in depth review of the care our patients receive who undergo heart surgery. Success of a program is measured by its outcomes. The Society of Thoracic Surgery (STS) sets the ‘National’ benchmarks to measure this success. The data managers in MCSQI are committed to ensuring Maryland programs succeed in data integrity, as this is the core of meaningful data. Data Managers at all ten sites in Maryland work collaboratively, review patient scenarios/data definitions, etc. to ensure STS registry data is accurate, complete, reproducible, and reflect the quality of care for patients in Maryland. The data managers play a vital role in supporting the quality improvement goals of MCSQI at a regional level and align themselves with other regional STS collaboratives at a national level! This collaborative and supportive approach is the key to MCSQI’s success in reporting surgical outcomes among the 10 programs in our State.
Jennifer Bobbitt,
Washington Adventist Hospital
MCSQI provides the framework for an ongoing unprecedented level of collaboration between cardiac surgery programs in Maryland. By learning from experiences at other high quality programs, UM Saint Joseph Medical Center has been able to augment our own quality initiatives, and ultimately improve care for our patients.
Dr. Rawn Salenger
St. Joseph Medical Center
“In this day and age with so much confrontation and dissension, it is comforting to note that the Maryland Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative stands for just the opposite. Through the sharing of experience and data, collegiality and cooperation, MCSQI has a vision to improve the care that this state gives its cardiac patients. There are not many collaboratives throughout the country like this, and Maryland can count itself among those few that recognize the importance of this kind of united effort, where the only thing that matters is one common goal, better treatment for our patients.”
“It is gratifying to see Maryland's cardiac surgery programs working together to improve services for cardiac surgery patients. MCSQI's collaborative efforts bode well for future patients.”
“ The MCSQI state collaborative has been a successful collaboration of all the cardiac surgery centers in Maryland and is taking quality of care for cardiac surgery patients to an even higher level. The multidisciplinary interaction provides resources, networking, and sharing of best practices and ideas that has already demonstrated positive outcomes and has set the basis for future quality initiatives in cardiac surgery.”
