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| IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT VPICU SPONSORSHIP OF SITES - October 1, 2005 |
Dear Colleagues,
The VPICU is now six years old. It has achieved the goal of developing and distributing software to assist PICUs in better understanding their practice; both locally and on a national aggregate level, through the development and operation of the VPICU Performance System (VPS). We now have over 70,000 patients in our database and the ability to provide detailed reports about performance for the participating ICUs. Multiple research projects, both retrospective and prospective, are under way. In addition, many ICUs are using the software and its unique features for their own internal projects that range from line sepsis to structuring resident programs to tracking delayed discharges.
The VPS software and comparative data collection program are a collaboration among three organizations: the VPICU at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, National Outcome Center at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and NACHRI. To assure that we have the ability to continue to meet the needs of the pediatric critical care community and to assure improved efficiency and long term survival, CHLA, NOC and NACHRI are creating an independent entity to continue this work. After October 1st , 2005 this new entity, Virtual PICU Systems or VPS, LLC, will continue to supply the services with which you have grown familiar - software and user support for the sites that are contributing data to the database and installation support for the sites that have access to the software for internal purposes.
The fee for participation in the VPS is currently $10,000 per year. The VPICU has and will continue to sponsor participation for a limited number of sites. For the first year the VPICU will fully sponsor 20 currently participating sites. In the second year we will have to reduce this support (our grant is not infinite) by 50%. If all twenty units continue to participate in the VPS, then the subsidy will be 50% of the participation fee (the subsidized sites will be expected to cover the remaining fee amount). In subsequent years it will be necessary to further reduce the VPICU subsidy.
It is critical for all who are currently using the software on a sponsored basis and who intend to continue their participation in the comparative data set, as well as those sites that requested sponsored participation from VPICU but have not yet begun submitting data to the VPS to understand these changes. The VPICU will continue to sponsor the first twenty sites that submit, on a routine basis, their quarterly data in compliance with the established quality standards. To date, thirteen sites have met this requirement. The VPS software will continue to be available to any unit for internal use only, but those wishing to participate in the comparative reporting portion of the program must either be sponsored through the VPICU or pay the participation fee directly, which an additional 22 sites are now doing. As of January 1st, 2006 all new participants will also be charged a one-time license fee of $7,000.
I would like to thank each one of you for participating. You have all made the VPICU a success.
Yours sincerely,
Randall C. Wetzel
Director, The Laura P. and Leland K. Whittier
Virtual Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
rwetzel@chla.usc.edu |
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