Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) Selected Again to Audit National Registry Database for The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

HMS’ Audit Is Vital for Maintaining Users’ Confidence in STS Administrative and Clinical Data 

(Fairmont, West Virginia – May 25, 2022) Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) has been selected again by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) to conduct the annual external audit of the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery, Intermacs, and now Pedimacs Databases, which are components of the STS National Database. Through HMS’ proven data analytics, records management, application development, and medical record review methodologies, the audit examines the accuracy, consistency and completeness of administrative and clinical data abstracted into each registry by participating sites. The goal of the audit is to ensure the integrity of the databases for stakeholders who rely on it for reimbursement, quality improvement, public reporting, research, development of public policy, and other purposes. 

The HMS team is excited to continue its work with STS staff and surgeon leaders to provide external data quality audit services on selected cardiac surgery and mechanically assisted circulatory support cases abstracted from the Adult Cardiac Surgery, Intermacs, and Pedimacs Databases.

“We are honored to again have an opportunity to support The Society of Thoracic Surgeons,” said HMS President and Owner Leah Heimbach. “We understand how vitally important the STS National Database is, as well as the crucial role of the Society’s annual audit in supplementing its multiple internal controls.”

In winning this engagement with STS, the HMS team continues to demonstrate its ability to address the critical success factors laid out by STS for the database audit, which include:

• Data processing and clinical abstraction solutions to ensure data are accurate, consistent, and complete.
• Effective quality assurance processes and adherence to rigorous inter-rater reliability standards (HMS’ clinical review team maintains a >95% inter-rater reliability score throughout all clinical data programs).
• Application of technology applications and innovations to supplement manual review processes for improved efficiency and analytics.
• A clinical review team with expertise in key clinical practice areas and familiarity with medical record systems and clinical data abstraction methodologies.
• Thorough data collection and analytics for effective reporting.
• Managing large-scale contracts with complex, simultaneous tasks. 

Our team emphasized its numerous data validation execution experiences utilizing business rules and various data validation algorithms, knowledge and familiarity with measure development and quality improvement processes, experience implementing Medicare public reporting initiatives, and our experienced management of complex, fast-paced projects with data submission and auditing components, as well as other strengths, in assuring STS of our team’s ability to deliver a successful audit of its database.

More than 1,600 sites throughout the United States, Canada, and eight other countries, participate in the STS National Database. The database contains more than eight million records, spanning the main areas of cardiothoracic surgery—adult cardiac, general thoracic, and congenital heart surgery, as well as mechanical circulatory support via the Intermacs Database and its pediatric section, Pedimacs.

About Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC

HMS protects vulnerable populations and veterans. We blend our unique healthcare and technology expertise to create bold, yet cost-effective solutions that federal and state agencies and our private-sector partners need to make sure your loved ones get the best possible care in nursing homes and other healthcare settings, no matter where in America they live.