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Only Hospitals in Mid-Atlantic Region to Earn Three Stars

The Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI) has awarded St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Bethlehem and Allentown campuses three stars for their active participation in the Registry Participation Program. The St. Luke’s campuses are the only facilities to receive the highest star rating from SVS VQI in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Washington DC.

The mission of the SVS VQI is to improve patient safety and the quality of vascular care delivery by providing web-based collection, aggregation and analysis of clinical data submitted in registry format for all patients undergoing specific vascular treatments. The VQI operates 14 vascular registries.

for all patients undergoing specific vascular treatments. The VQI operates 14 vascular registries. The participation awards program began in 2016 to encourage active participation in the registries program and to recognize the importance of that participation. St. Luke’s Anderson Campus received two stars for its participation in the program.

Participating centers can earn up to three stars based on actions that lead to better patient care, including:

• The completeness of long-term, follow-up reporting, based on the percentage of patients for whom they have at least nine months of follow-up data
• Physician attendance at semi-annual meetings of a regional quality group
• Initiation of quality improvement activities based on VQI data
• The number of vascular registries in which the center participates

VQI’s registries contain demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 670,000 vascular procedures performed in the U.S. and in Canada. Each record includes information from the patient’s initial hospitalization and at one-year follow-up.

The wealth of data allows centers and providers to compare their performance to regional and national benchmarks. All centers and providers receive biannual dashboards and regular performance reports so they can use their data to support quality improvement initiatives. .

St. Luke’s University Health Network biannual regional meetings allow physicians of different specialties, nurses, data managers, quality officers and others to meet, share information and ideas, and learn from each other in a positive and supportive environment. Members have used VQI data to significantly improve the delivery of vascular care at local, regional and national levels, reducing complications and expenses.

“Hard-working, dedicated organizations such as St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Bethlehem and Allentown campuses are key to the success of the vascular registries,” said VQI Medical Director Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, MD. “The work we do to build and maintain the registries for researcher use is crucial to health and outcomes for vascular patients. Like the old saying says, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’”

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Media Contact

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke's created the Lehigh Valley's first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows. St. Luke's is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health's 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke's hospitals. St. Luke's University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke's has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN's information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke's is also recognized as one of the state's lowest cost providers.

About SVS VQI

Operating under the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Vascular Quality Initiative is composed of 14 registries containing demographic, clinical, procedural and outcomes data from more than 670,000 vascular procedures performed nationwide and in Canada. The mission of VQI is to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness and cost of vascular healthcare.