Our last spotlight for 2020 is on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) General Thoracic Surgery Database. Registry Partners’ Cardiac Services team assists facilities and institutions nationwide with their STS data collection efforts. We serve as a complete outsource solution or can augment the facility’s current data collection team to ensure high quality, timely, and accurate data collection and submission. Click here to learn more about STS and the other registries we support.
Read on to learn more about the STS and the General Thoracic Surgery Database.
What is the STS? And what is its purpose?
- The STS National Database was instituted in 1989 by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) as a quality initiative to help improve safety and outcomes for patients undergoing cardio-thoracic surgeries. (surgeries involving the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other areas within the chest)
- The Database has participants in 11 countries, including all 50 of the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, India, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.
- The Database is divided into four separate registries:
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- Adult Cardiac
- General Thoracic
- Congenital Heart Surgery
- Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (Intermacs)
General Thoracic Surgery Database
- The General Thoracic Surgery Database houses approximately 556,000 patient records and has more than 1,000 participating surgeons.
- The General Thoracic Surgery Database is focused on Lung Resection procedures for primary lung cancer and Esophageal Resections for primary esophageal cancer.
- There are optional modules available to submit Thymus/Mediastinal Mass Resection, Tracheal Resection, and Hiatal Hernia/GERD cases for analysis in the national report.
Public Reporting:
- The STS allows participants of the Database to voluntarily report their surgical outcomes publicly.
- This allows participants in the General Thoracic Surgery Database the opportunity to compare their results against national benchmarks using both the STS Database and the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) as a comparator. Participants can then use this information to identify appropriate areas for improvement.
- Participants who publicly report their data are also given credit by U.S. News and World Report when compiling their list of the best hospitals.
The STS is a nationally recognized leader in outcomes research. Since its inception, more than 100 publications have utilized information derived from Database outcomes. These studies below have been published in a variety of professional journals and textbooks and have significantly advanced knowledge in cardiothoracic surgery.
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Resources:
STS – General Thoracic Database
STS – Registries & Research Center