Q. What are the benefits of participation in the Joint CCAS -STS database?
A. Benefits include

• a standardized format for data collection to assess the care of congenital cardiac patients undergoing cardiothoracic operations, cardiac catheterizations and non-cardiac procedures on congenital cardiac patients.
• Semi-annual data harvests with reports showing care patterns in your facility vs the national participants.
• Documentation of the quality of care and adverse event rates delivered by your practice for interested third-party entities
• participation in a national quality improvement effort for pediatric anesthesia that has an impact at the local, regional, and national levels.
• Participation in the Joint CCAS – STS Database is one of the metrics measured in the US News and World Report Pediatric Hospital survey for outcomes measurement.
• Encourages involvement in your hospitals outcomes measurement process.

Q. Does the surgeon have to contribute data to the STS database in order for the anesthesiologists to participate?
A. Yes, surgeon participation in the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database is a prerequisite.

Q. What is the annual fee for participation?
A. $3,300 per year regardless of number of cases submitted or number of physician anesthesiologists (This fee does not include any fees paid by the surgeons or any hardware/software required).  The anesthesia data fields are already built into all of the commercially available software packages that your surgical program is using at no additional expense.

Q. What are the current data fields being collected?
A. The current data collection form that details all of the fields is available on the STS website: http://www.sts.org/node/42208

Q.  Do we have to submit data from surgery, cardiac cath labs and the non-cardiac surgeries?

A.  Optimally, you would submit from all categories but many institutions choose to only submit surgical data only or surgery + cath data.  What is most important is that you try to achieve 100% case submission to get the most value from participation.

Q. How often will the data fields undergo revision?
A. Data field revision occurs approximately every 3 years in partnership with the STS.

Q. How do I initiate the process of participation?
A. Contact Gerard Terafa, Operations Manager for the STS National Database, at 312.202.5858 or e-mail [email protected].

Q.  How do I extract data for research proposals from the database?

A.  The STS has a Congenital-specific Access and Publications committee that reviews all requests submitted to the data warehouse which are intended for either publication or presentation.  The CCAS has a representative on this committee.  Data requests are divided into either “minor” or “major” requests depending upon whether they are for local use only and the degree of statistical analysis required and whether there is an intent to publish or present the data nationally.

Q.  How can I participate at the CCAS level?

A.  There is an annual CCAS Database committee meeting held in conjunction with annual CCAS meeting.  It is an open meeting and participation and involvement are encouraged.  For more information, please contact David Vener, MD:  [email protected] .