A: GIQuIC is collecting quality indictors for colonoscopy. Subsequently, GIQuIC will launch modules to collect quality indicators for EGD, ERCP and EUS procedures. All measures will be taken from the work of the ACG-ASGE Joint Task Force for the Development of GI Endoscopy Quality Indicators. These were published in April 2006:
A sample of the data collection form can be found here.
A: Any GI Office, Endoscopy Unit, ASC, or hospital that includes practitioners who are members of ACG, ASGE, or both societies.
A: Facilities can register and submit payment electronically or by completing the registration form and submitting with payment via mail or fax. Credit cards and checks will be accepted. A participating site agreement will also be required in order to register.
A: Facilities will be charged an annual site license fee per the number of physicians at the site:
Greater than 20 physicians at your facility? Please contact us.
A: No. Facilities not using an electronic report writer will be able to submit data via an electronic data collection form. All that is necessary is a computer with Internet access.
A: Facilities will be able to submit data using an electronic report writer. The following endowriters participated in the pilot project.
Contact your electronic report writer representative and let them know you wish to participate with the GIQuIC database. The representative should then be able to show you how your endoscopy report writer can capture the data necessary for transmission to the national database. Please note additional fees may apply from your endowriter depending on integration requirements.
If you use an electronic report writer not listed above, Please contact us.
A: Training will be provided to facilities prior to the roll-out. A data manager for each facility will be the point person responsible for uploading the data to the registry. An online training tutorial will be provided which can be completed at the data manager’s convenience. There will also be help desk support for all participating sites.
A: This Data Manager Workflow document provides an overview of their role.
A: Participants will be able to obtain reports on demand that enable participants to compare their performance to other groups, facilities, geographic regions, etc. benchmarked against a variety of standards. Report templates will be available for use and specialized reports can be created at will by participants.
A: GIQuIC will provide you with marketing materials that explain the meaning behind your participation in the GIQuIC program; this includes a PR/Media Toolkit and support to help you/your facility publicize involvement with GIQuIC and overall commitment to quality in patient care.
A: Yes, all data that comes to GIQuIC is stripped of any personally identifiable information and encrypted.
A: The GIQuIC registry is based on real-time clinical data, not claims data, more accurately representing clinical performance. Participants (physicians, hospitals, ASCs, physician offices and endoscopy units) will be able to run a myriad of customizable reports from the registry, based on this real-time clinical data, benchmarking against local, regional or national cohorts. Outcome is a CMS-qualified vendor, therefore the registry will allow for PQRI submission in the near future.
Participants will be able to perform peer-based evaluation and quality improvement, identify gaps in care and address those gaps, all requirements of accrediting bodies.
The data could potentially be used for clinical outcomes research and quality initiatives. The result of documented performance improvement and quality participation could set the stage for improved reimbursements through Medicare and other insurance companies.
A: These would all be specific individual sites but an organization with multiple individual sites will be able to roll-up their data to get an organizational report.
A: The registration fee for a facility includes the cost of a site license for the registry software. The variable cost associated with the specific number of physicians at a site is not as significant as the fixed cost of a site license fee. It is recommended to have one or two data managers per every 10 physicians.
A: Yes
A: Yes, for example, inadequate prep, stricture, cecum surgically absent, etc.
A: Adequate is defined as the prep is adequate such that the examiner is able to identify polyps of > 6 mm size or larger. These types of definitions will be provided so that it is clear what should be entered for each data point.
A: Yes, you will be able to run customized reports for the participating physicians in your facility, including past performance compared to colleagues locally, regionally, and nationally.
A: Once data is entered in the registry a facility can begin to generate reports immediately.
A: Reports will be updated “real-time” when data is entered.
A: Yes, results can be filtered by facility type (hospital, ASC, physician office, teaching facility, non-teaching facility).
A: There are a few fields that will not be required (i.e. height and weight). These data requirements will be conveyed during the training tutorial at the launch of the registry.
A: Yes, the reports can be generated by physician or by facility as a whole.
A: You will have the opportunity to provide feedback and suggestions to GIQuIC. We will encourage and ask for this feedback from our participants and hope that we can accommodate requests for customized reports, data, and research metrics if the system does not currently provide what you are looking for.
A: All personal identifiable data (physician data and patient data) is de-identified. The level of granularity for comparison will protect identities- so it could be down to the level of zip code, but in some cases it might not be drilled down to that level depending on the number of physicians in a particular geographic area. Patients and physicians will not be identified in the reporting.
A: The submission of data will be accomplished electronically for those using participating endowriters. If you do not use an endowriter, then a streamlined manual entry upload (internet/web interface) is available. Those using endowriters will use a direct interface to upload data directly from their endowriter to the registry. This will be done as a batchload and will upload a month’s worth of data in a few minutes (or as frequent batch uploading as you wish). Entering data using the format for non-endowriter facilities will take 60-90 seconds per procedure.
A: There is no deadline for registration. You can register at any time.
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A: The suggested browser is Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher, but the following additional browsers are also supported: Firefox 2 or higher, Safari 3 or higher.
A: All of Outcome’s solutions are fully privacy compliant and mesh seamlessly with an organization’s existing privacy protocols. Outcome has worked closely with the ACS to ensure privacy compliance, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the EU Privacy Directive.
A: Outcome uses encryption to protect data “in motion” as it travels from point to point over the internet. This encryption is done using secure sockets layer and bit key applications sufficient to render the information travelling over the internet as “unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals” consistent with HIPAA and the HITECH Act. In addition, Outcome utilizes secure, off-site hosting facilities that are monitored 24x7x365, with access controlled by security personnel and/or biometric security systems.
The above steps meet or exceed federal requirements for information security and privacy and are consistent with industry standards for data privacy.
A: ActiveX is not required.
A: All servers used to host customer/site applications are housed in a commercial co-location facility. These facilities provide access control, fire protection, power conditioning, backup power (UPS and generator), High-speed internet access, cooling and hands-on assistance when needed. Access to these facilities is controlled by access lists, key cards and biometrics.
A: The data centers are manned and monitored 24x7x365 by employees of the data center provider. This includes access and environmental conditions.
A: All databases and application code, configuration files, and artifacts are backed up nightly and transmitted by private network to Outcome's central data facility in Cambridge. Data are backed up to tape and archived by a nationally recognized archival vendor.
A: Outcome focuses not only on collecting but also on securing data. Outcome offers a secure facility and failover processes to keep your data safe. Outcome maintains system security through both physical and logical methods. Databases are maintained in a secure, access controlled and monitored facility. The mechanisms employed are in-band processes (encryption, authentication, and intrusion detection), out-of-band processes (user identification, secure storage and back-up, data redacting, and non-modifiable audit trails), and system redundancy. Additionally, an external assessment of system security is routinely performed by an independent, expert third party.
A: Access to the Outcome system is based on defined user roles. These roles determine the specific menus, tasks, and information to which a user has access. By integrating this technology with standard procedures for user definition, password selection and updating, and other features, we can prevent unauthorized access to the study and secure information.
Outcome’s security standards meet or exceed those established for privacy protected and/or other sensitive HCFA information sent over the Internet.
A: Systems are accessed via individual username and password. Passwords are encrypted at the browser using a DES encryption key and transmitted to the server where they are compared to the encrypted password stored in the database. The communication of the encrypted password is secured using SSL. Passwords are never visible in unencrypted format.
A: It depends on the point of failure, if the App server or Instance fails the recovery is warm, if the database fails the recovery is hot (clustered oracle).