MBSAQIP Updates

by Stacy Brethauer, MD, MBA, DABS-FPMBS

Dr. Brethauer is Chair, Committee on Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Interim Chief Quality Officer, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Bariatric Times. 2023;20(3–4):24–25.

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Hello colleagues,

Welcome to the first installment of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) Updates. Since we reorganized our leadership last July, I first want to welcome Drs. Teresa LaMasters and Rich Peterson as Co-chairs of the Standards and Verifications Committee and Tony Petrick and Dana Telem as Co-chairs of the Data and Quality Committee. As part of this “refresh,” we have also invited many new members to improve the diversity and experience of our committee membership. It is a great group of leaders, and I believe we are well positioned to continue this great work for our specialty.

As the new Chair of the Committee on Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, I first want to thank all the leaders who came before me who got this program where it is today. Without their vision and leadership, we would not be over 800 centers strong and seen as the leaders in surgical quality within the college and nationally.

I will update you on our upcoming initiatives in future installments of this column, but now I want to share with you some of the priorities we set at a recent strategic planning meeting for MBSAQIP:

• Provide additional training and oversight for current and new site reviewers to improve consistency of the accreditation program nationally.
• Have site reviewers serve as consultants to centers before and during site visits to share best practices, raise the level of quality improvement projects at all centers, and inform centers about how to correct deficiencies and improve all aspects of patient care.
• Help centers and their administration understand why quality improvement and accreditation is an important value-added component of a successful bariatric surgery program.
• Maintain the credibility of MBSAQIP by holding centers accountable for meeting the standards and improving their outcomes where needed.
• Widely distribute best practices and quality improvement successes to elevate the care of our patients nationally.
• Continue conducting national quality improvement projects, like Decreasing Readmissions through Opportunities Provided (DROP), Enhanced Recovery Goals in Bariatric Surgery (ENERGY), and Bariatric Surgery Targeting Opioids (BSTOP).
• Innovate to create more value for participating centers and surgeons.
• Increase transparency about data use by external stakeholders.

Finally, we will be revising the MBSAQIP Standards this year and look forward to getting your feedback. We know that there are areas that need to be changed and that variables for the risk adjustment models need some work. Our top priority during this process will be to make sure our program’s standards and data reporting align with your practices and priorities moving forward. 

Thanks for all you do to make our specialty safe for our patients.

Sincerely,

Stacy Brethauer, MD, MBA, DABS-FPMBS  

Tags: MBSAQIP updates

Category: MBSAQIP Updates, Past Articles