Why did you volunteer to be on the AAOS Registry Oversight Committee?
I’ve been passionate about outcomes measurement my whole career, however, after a decade of work with the registry program I can say that being able to measure and improve outcomes makes it even more exciting. It really comes down to quality data.
What is one thing you want people to know about the Registry that they may not know?
It’s easier to access and use the data than one might think. When you think about a registry program this big, it sounds overwhelming and intimidating. But, there are individual tools that exist for individual clinicians, practices and hospitals to access their data and to look for opportunities for improvements.
Why do you love Registry data?
As a surgeon and chair of the department of surgery, our most valuable tool is data. Nothing is as valuable as data. Data and particularly outcomes data gives us the information we need to identify where there are opportunities for improvement and re-evaluate and re-design the way we deliver care and then re-measure it. Data is the most effective tool we have to deliver greater value to patients.
How is your hospital using registry data?
Each month, our performance improvement team looks at where there are opportunities in the data and develop a plan accordingly. For example, if we identify that we have a higher than anticipated re-admission rate or reoperation or infection rate, we try to drill down into those individual cases and put a plan in place to change the way that we’re providing care. We then go back and re-measure that. We use the data to drive a performance improvement agenda.
How do you see AJRR propelling the future of patient care?
Registries are the backbone of efforts to improve value. A North Star for all of us is to improve value for patients and deliver the greatest health we can to patients with the resources that we have available. And to do that, we need tools to measure and improve health and maintain or reduce the cost of care. Registries are a vehicle for us to improve patient care. If we can’t measure it, we can’t improve it…it starts with measurement. I always point out that when people talk about value, they get confused about the cost. My colleague Elizabeth says that without health there isn’t any value – if no health is created then the value is zero. The outcome from a patient’s perspective is far and away the most important metric when we’re assessing value.