Inpatient Evaluation Center (IPEC)

The VA Inpatient Evaluation Center (IPEC), located in Cincinnati, was formed in July 2005 by the Under Secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs after a successful 6-month pilot funded by 6 VISN directors (1, 10, 15, 16, 20, 23). It is a national program to improve patient outcomes from acute care hospitalization through feedback of outcomes and processes to providers and managers. The mission of the IPEC is to 1) measure and report risk adjusted outcomes for patients undergoing acute hospital care; 2) develop quality metrics to track processes contributing to outcomes in acute hospital care, and 3) support the identification of evidence-based practices  and their implementation in order to drive change and innovation in care.

To permit comparison of performance between hospitals, the Center uses a validated risk adjustment method that relies only on computerized data elements which are collected via an extraction program run at each medical center. The data is then analyzed to create reports that compare risk adjusted mortality and length of stay and the adherence to process measures. The VA IPEC reports are issued from a secure website and characterize ICU performance against “average” and “best” performers. Data in the reports is stratified into specific patient groups to make the results more relevant such as by type of intensive care unit, severity of illness, or admission diagnosis or procedure. Using a web-based database application created and supported by the VA IPEC, hospitals can also track their hospital acquired infections in the intensive care units.

Evidence-Based Practices

For further information and documentation on evidence-based practices, please view the Evidence-Based Practices page. At present, publicly available documents are limited to those related to Central Line Infections and Ventilator Associated Pneumonia.

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