Voluntary Review of Quality of Care (VRQC)
For more than 30 years, the Voluntary Review of Quality of Care (VRQC) program has assisted facilities across the country with meaningful analysis and recommendations.
VRQC offers confidential, unbiased, customized site visits led by a multidisciplinary care team, including ACOG Fellows, who provide a comprehensive assessment of your facility’s obstetrics and gynecology department. Whether your hospital is large or small, urban or rural, academic or community-based, we can assess the quality of care that is provided and propose recommendations for improvement.
Potential benefits of the service include:
- Identifying issues underlying adverse events
- Improving teamwork and trust
- Enhancing patient-centered care and outcomes
- Bettering your position for value-based payments
- Reducing the risk of malpractice claims
Frequently addressed issues
Clinical
- Poor management of induction of labor
- Poor physician practice patterns
- Poor interpretation of fetal heart tracing
- Poor management decisions for cesarean birth
- Hysterectomy performed despite incomplete workup
- Inappropriate medication use (eg, oxytocin)
- Lack of adherence to guidelines
Systems, Leadership, and Communication
- Lack of department leadership or structure
- Inadequate nurse staffing
- Increase or decrease in size or services provided
- Lack of effective quality assessment process
- Lack of effective peer review
- Policies and procedures are not current
- Poor documentation of clinical reasoning
Access and print out our VRQC brochure containing additional details.
The Process
A visit lasts four days. Practicing obstetrician–gynecologists and nurses (additional reviewers may include CNMs, anesthesiologists, or family physicians) with over 10 years of quality review expertise assess the facility through a tour, staff interviews, and review of medical records. Reviewers conduct the evaluation using evidence-based ACOG guidelines and provide a final report with findings, actionable recommendations, and ACOG resources. Below is an outline of the site visit schedule:
- Day One
- Hospital tour
- Entrance conference
- EMR orientation
- Day Two
- Confirmation of charts for review
- Interviews (20 minutes each)
- Day Three
- Log into EMR/review navigation
- Chart reviews
- Final team meeting
- Day Four
- Exit conference
Remote Visit Options
Due to COVID-19 considerations, the VRQC program is offering virtual reviews at this time. If you’re interested in a fully remote visit, please let us know by completing this interest form.
Cost
The team composition and fee for a VRQC site visit are based on Levels of Maternal Care.
- A deposit toward the total fee is payable at the time of application
- Payment includes all program administrative costs
- For more information about cost, please fill out this confidential interest inquiry
What You Need to Do
Following a request for a site visit, the hospital will be asked to:
- Sign a business agreement
- Submit demographic and clinical data for the department and for each health care professional (obstetrician–gynecologists and CNMs)
- Pay a deposit
If you want to request a VRQC visit or have any questions, please submit an inquiry.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at [email protected].