Call for Practices to Participate in Pilot
Cardiovascular Practice Assessment and Recognition Program
The ACC now is ready to pilot its Cardiovascular Practice Recognition Program (CVRP). The CVRP is a practice-level assessment and recognition program designed to:
- Establish relevant goals and targets for cardiovascular specialists and their practices to achieve;
- Provide a road map to guide performance improvement and practice transformation strategies; and
- Bring consistency to market by standardizing the methodology for how cardiovascular practices are assessed and recognized.
View a full program description (.pdf).
We need practices to help us test the feasibility of implementing the CVRP. If your practice is interested in participating, please complete and submit the practice profile on or before November 25. Twenty (20) practices will be selected to participate in the pilot with the goal of ensuring that the pilot sample is representative of a variety of cardiology practices today: small, medium, large, urban, rural, academic, hospital-based, private, with and without electronic medical records, etc. Please note that all cardiologists within the practice must agree to participate.
We intend to gather enough data to validate the meaningfulness of the metrics and criteria; determine scoring strategies; set thresholds; and assign levels of recognition.
Currently, the program is organized within three levels of assessment to demonstrate a practice-level commitment to continuous quality improvement: structural, professional, and clinical. Quality indicators, or metrics, within each level of assessment are defined and assigned a certain number of points. View pilot metrics.
| Group Practice Assessment |
Structural Indicators |
| Individual Physician Assessment |
Professional Indicators |
| Patient Level Assessment |
Clinical Process Measures |
Practices will be selected for pilot participation in mid-December. Once selected, participating physicians and practices will be required to sign a letter of agreement with the American College of Cardiology attesting to specific terms.
Practices will collect and submit data via a web-based tool between January 1 and January 31, 2010. View sample pilot questionnaire. All participating practices will receive a $1,000 unrestricted stipend to help defray the costs associated with participation.
If you have questions, please contact Eileen Hagan, Associate Director, Payer Advocacy at 800-253-4636 x6475 or ehagan@acc.org.