Pulmonary Hypertension Care Centers: Role of the Review Committee

The Pulmonary Hypertension Care Center (PHCC) program launch is well underway! A key component to the success of this program is the ability to provide a comprehensive review of the site applications, and to include in-depth interviews of program staff and administrators on site visits. The applications and site visits will be handled by members of the PHCC Review Committee, which comprises 23 members in addition to my position as Review Committee Chair, including 12 physicians and 11 allied health care professionals (Table 1). This summer, we completed the PHCC Review Committee training program; committee members underwent comprehensive training on accreditation policy (Figure 1) and application review procedures. There were a total of 6 pilot site applications and site visits, which are now complete. More than half of the committee members had the opportunity to participate in at least one of the pilot site visits as part of their training. These visits also provided important feedback for the PHCC program and specified any needed adjustments to the Center criteria and the application process before the official PHCC program launch. The review committee also held the first voting meetings for the pilot site accreditations to ensure the process was smooth and followed the highest standards toward fulfilling the goals of the PHCC initiative.

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Table 1. PHCC Review Committee Members

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With the recent advances in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), it has become even more important that Centers meet the needs of patients with respect to expertise, access to the most advanced targeted agents, and quality of care. As chair of the PHCC Review Committee, I have been tasked with ensuring that the committee provides a standardized approach to evaluating applications upon receipt, and adheres to the process for conducting site visits and voting provided by the PHCC Oversight Committee and the PHCC Implementation Task Force. I am extremely proud of the team that has been assembled and the intense level of behind-the-scenes work already completed. The PHCC Review Committee is well prepared and eager for the official launch of the PHCC program.