AACVPR Outpatient Pulmonary Rehab Registry

Overview

The AACVPR Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation Registry is a powerful tool for tracking patient outcomes and program performance in meeting evidence-based guidelines for secondary prevention of pulmonary disease. It provides pulmonary rehabilitation programs with national outcomes data for benchmarking and demonstrates the positive impact of pulmonary rehabilitation on the morbidity, mortality, physical function, and quality of life of pulmonary patients across the United States.

• Access program and patient data reports instantly, and benchmark your results against national averages.
• Implement quality improvement projects based on real data, and enhance documentation for administrators and referring physicians.
• Influence healthcare policy makers to utilize pulmonary and pulmonary rehabilitation, and improve coverage and reimbursement rates for your program.

The Web-based registry allows subscribing pulmonary rehabilitation programs to securely enter data on patient demographics; medical history; referral, enrollment and completion dates; healthcare utilization; and clinical, behavioral, and psychosocial measures at intake, discharge, and follow-up. Each subscribing program can pull customized reports of its patient and program data, as well as reports that show how its clinical, behavioral, health, and service outcomes compare to aggregated data from other programs based on region, program size, or other factors.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Registry officially launched June 2013. The data set was carefully developed by the pulmonary rehabilitation experts on the AACVPR Registry Committee, and the registry went through three months of beta testing by a select number of pulmonary rehabilitation programs.

Influencing National Healthcare Practices

Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is not well utilized in standard heart care, despite being recognized as a standard of care by the American Thoracic Society (ATS), American Hospital Association (AHA), American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), and AACVPR. As healthcare systems begin to emphasize chronic disease management, we have a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the value of PR.

By tracking and providing comparative data for benchmarking of clinical, behavioral, health, and service outcomes, as well as tracking key program performance issues, the AACVPR Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation Registry will provide a solid base of scientific data to promote more widespread use of PR services for eligible heart patients.

The Benefits for PR Programs

Through the AACVPR Outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation Registry, PR programs are able to:

• Create and manage patient profiles
• Enter and view outcomes data on enrolled patients in real time
• Track and quantify progress of the PR program in meeting performance goals
• Produce individual and grouped outcomes reports

By assisting in the collection, management, and interpretation of outcomes data, the registry will help PR programs:

• Compare outcomes and processes to evidence-based goals and national benchmarks
• Implement quality improvement projects based on real data
• Enhance documentation and communication with the program’s key audiences, such as hospital administrators and referring physicians
• Promote the role of PR in the management of chronic disease
• Increase support from physicians
• Improve 3rd-party payer coverage and reimbursement rates

Registry Functionality

Through this Web-based registry, subscribers can access accurate, high-quality data in real time. The data is secured using industry-standard SSL and rigorous encryption techniques.

Application programming interfaces (APIs) will allow PR programs with existing electronic systems to seamlessly and securely send data to the registry, while programs currently using a paper-based data collection system can step up to an easy-to-use interface that facilitates patient management and delivers critical patient care and program process feedback.

Data Collection and Reporting

Three categories of data, based on current practices and sound clinical evidence, are being collected:

• Patient demographic information, such as age, ethnicity, and pre-existing comorbid conditions
• Program performance measures such as referral rates, enrollment rates, completion rates, and medication compliance
• Individual patient outcomes, including key clinical, psychosocial, and behavioral measures

Programs get immediate access to their patients’ data and will be able to see how their data compare to aggregated data from other programs in the registry. Reports based on various demographic variables will help programs determine whether there are inequalities in outcomes based on gender, ethnic, or age differences, or comorbidities.

• Medical, Pulmonary, National Registry