Joint Oregon Quality Summit - October 3-4, 2009

The Oregon Society of Anesthesiologists and the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Surgeons invite you to the first Oregon Perioperative Quality Summit in Bend, Oregon the weekend of October 3-4, 2009. With so much attention being paid to healthcare reform, a focus on cost over quality seems to be dominating. This joint meeting is open to anesthesiologists, surgeons and others with an interest in perioperative care. The goals are to provide background information on national and local efforts in quality improvement, the role of registries, electronic medical records (EMR) and other tools to collect and analyze outcomes data, and to review recent improvements in intensive care that may be applicable to the spectrum of perioperative care.

With this background in hand, the attendees will participate in wide-ranging discussions to identify opportunities for perioperative quality improvement in Oregon and then help establish priorities for future efforts tailored to the needs of Oregonians. Based on these decisions, the course organizers will be preparing a "white paper" summarizing the results of this meeting. As opportunities present, we will use these findings to help assure that policymakers understand the needs and assessments of those of us directly involved in patient care.

The faculty includes Dr. Clifford Ko from UCLA, who is the ACS director for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) and has published innovative work on surgical quality indicators. OHSU neuro-intensivist Ansgar Brambrink, M.D., Ph.D. will present on quality opportunities in intensive care. Susan Palmer, M.D. of Oregon Anesthesiology Group and Ken Abbey, M.D. of OHSU will cover anesthesia quality databases and EMR use. The course planners are OHSU Clinical Vice Chair of Surgery Brett Sheppard, M.D. and OSA's President-elect Norm Cohen, M.D. Dr. Sheppard has been a member of the Oregon Health Fund Board, serving on its Quality Institute Workgroup. Dr. Cohen oversees the American Society of Anesthesiologists' Section on Professional Practice, was a long-time member of the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) and is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at OHSU. Doctors Sheppard and Cohen will provide the updates on the local and national efforts in quality improvement.

We are planning a social event for the evening of Saturday, October 3. Brochures will be mailed this week with hotel information and the schedule of events. The brochure is also available for download by clicking here.

Please join us and participate in this terrific opportunity to help drive quality improvement in perioperative care. Your participation provides us the best chance of finding successful solutions for these important challenges. In addition, a grassroots approach helps us avoid creating unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to improvement.