COE Program Overview

SRC is the world’s leading administrator of center of excellence (COE) programs for surgical specialties. The programs SRC manages are focused on improving the safety and quality of patient care worldwide, and lowering the overall costs associated with successful treatment.

More than 1,100 bariatric surgeons and 600 facilities are currently designated or approved for provisional status through one of the COE programs that SRC administers.

Learn more about the COE programs for bariatric and metabolic surgery

Learn more about the COE program for minimally invasive gynecology

Purpose

The COE programs that SRC administers are focused on improving the safety and quality of surgical care, and lowering the overall costs associated with successful treatment. They are designed to expand patient awareness of – and access to – surgical procedures performed by surgeons and facilities that have demonstrated excellence in specialty-specific techniques. The COE programs also help position providers at the forefront of care, and enable each professional society to protect their specialty’s future by demonstrating improved outcomes and cost savings that result from a quality initiative.

Data from these COE programs will be used to determine which treatments work best for which patients under what circumstances. This information will enable clinicians, patients, payors and policymakers to make informed decisions that will improve healthcare at the individual level and for each specialty’s patient population as a whole. These efforts will also align with those of organizations such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that are focused on comparative effectiveness research (CER) and others involved in health reform initiatives sponsored by the White House and governments around the world.

Unique Approach, Proven Methodology

SRC serves as an independent contractor that works closely with its medical society clients to develop quality improvement programs tailored to their specialty’s patients and providers. Each program is based on a proven methodology developed by SRC that involves two interdependent initiatives: a rigorous COE program and a central outcomes database. This integrated approach exemplifies the concept of the “Hawthorne effect” – over time, program participants improve the quality of their care simply by entering data that will be subject to evaluation[1] (file://filer1 NULL.headquarters NULL.surgicalreview NULL.org/Communications/A3/Website%20-%20SRC/Phase%201 NULL.6%20-%20Multi-Specialty/10-COE%20Programs/COE%20Programs_Overview_Multispecialty_07-25-11%20Approved NULL.docx#_ftn1).

Each medical society selects physician leaders from their membership to serve on a Standards Committee that works with SRC to set program requirements. SRC’s methodology is unique in that it involves various stakeholders in the process to obtain their input, hear different perspectives and garner their support of the program. The requirements that result from this collaboration are comprehensive, specific to the needs of patients and providers, and integral to the future of the specialty.

Once program requirements are established, SRC manages the application and designation process on the client’s behalf. SRC works with a Review Committee comprised of physicians selected by the medical society to objectively evaluate each designation candidate. A periodic designation renewal process ensures ongoing compliance with COE criteria.

The medical society also appoints members to a Research Committee that oversees the use of BOLD, SRC’s central outcomes database, for the COE program. BOLD helps ensure ongoing compliance with the COE programs SRC administers and enables development of general knowledge about optimal practices in surgical care. The Research Committee governs access and dissemination of BOLD data to COE participants, outside investigators and other third parties. The committee also works with SRC’s Research team to review surgical outcomes data and determine how COE program requirements should evolve based on the findings. By measuring and evaluating outcomes, BOLD advances the delivery of evidence-based medicine that improves patient safety and care quality.