Anesthesia Quality Institute

“The organization utilizes the management of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) to provide certain program and administrative services. On January 1, 2010, AQI entered into a Shared Services Agreement with ASA whereas AQI will support the educational mission of ASA by promoting the health and safety of patients of anesthesiologists by fostering advances in quality of care measurement and improvements in the delivery of anesthesia medical care; and whereas AQI, as a newly-formed corporation, has a need for certain professional services, including communications, finance, information, technology, human resources management, practice management/regulatory affairs and administrative services. The agreement also includes ASA leasing office space at its headquarters to AQI.”

“The organization retains the services of an independent CPA firm to prepare the organization's Form 990. Management reviews the completed Form 990 and provides a copy to each member of the governing body prior to filing. The governing body is given a chance to comment and/or ask questions.”

“On an annual basis, the organization's board members and officers are required to disclose whether or not they have any potential conflicts of interest and, if so, are required to disclose them. Board members are required to abstain from voting on any issues where they have a potential conflict. The members who have a conflict must fill out a form to describe the conflict. ASA management maintains the completed forms for the organization.”

“Compensation review procedures for the President as well as the Executive Director are performed by a related organization, ASA. The President is also the Chief Executive Officer for ASA. Outside compensation experts are utilized regarding benchmarking both positions. The AQI Board approved the compensation of the Executive Director. The President and President-Elect of ASA make decisions on any merit increase for the President of AQI.”

“Governing documents and financial statements are available through applicable governmental agencies; the conflict of interest policy is available upon written request to the organization.”

“Lance mueller, former interim executive director / aqi director, had assumed the duties of executive director on an interim basis until a permanent replacement for the position could be found. Once the aqi executive positon was filled, he resumed his duties as an aqi director. Lance also left the aqi organization prior to the end of 2015.”

“The National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR), a data warehouse that has been designated as a Qualified Registry (QR) and a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) reporting. AQI's clinical data provides an evidence-based rationale that informs treatment choices and helps control treatment costs.”