Extracorporeal Life Support Organization

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Welcome to ELSO

The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) is an international non-profit consortium of health care institutions who are dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel therapies for support of failing organ systems. Crucial is the promotion of a broad multidisciplinary collaboration. The primary mission of the Organization is to maintain a registry of, at least, use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in active ELSO centers. As appropriate, registries of other novel forms of organ system support are within the purview of ELSO. Registry data is to be used to support clinical research, support regulatory agencies, and support individual ELSO centers. ELSO provides educational programs for active centers as well as for the broader medical and lay communities.

OUR VISION

Notice:

CMS reduces ECMO reimbursement rates in the US

ELSO Community:
Just recently, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made a coverage decision in which Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) assignments (i.e. hospital reimbursement) for ECMO support were changed. Rather than the historical approach in which all ECMO patients were assigned DRG 003, patients are now stratified into different DRG groups based upon their mode of cannulation and indication for support. This change by CMS results in lower hospital reimbursement for many ECMO patients. ELSO leadership and many of its member institutions do not agree with the rationale behind this decision nor the process by which the decision was made. ELSO hired a reimbursement consultant and has partnered with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) to address our concerns with CMS. We have created the attached Comment Letter to CMS which has been endorsed by fifteen multidisciplinary professional societies. The thrust of our claim is that mode of cannulation cannot be used to predict acuity of a patient’s illness nor does it correlate with hospital costs and resource utilization. The ELSO Registry was instrumental in making our case and we thank all of the dedicated participants for their tireless efforts in producing this important data used for research, quality assurance, and advocacy. In follow-up to our Comment Letter to CMS, we and our partner societies hope to meet with CMS to assure that ECMO patients are placed in the most appropriate DRG category. For those centers interested in helping, please ask your hospital administrators to perform a financial impact analysis, and if the findings are substantial they can consider commenting to the American Hospital Association. We would also appreciate your forwarding the results of your institution’s analysis to us. We will keep you informed of our progress.
Attached PDF

Robert Bartlett, ELSO Steering Committee Member
Jonathan Haft, Chair ELSO Technology Committee
Stephen Lahey, Vice-Chair STS Workforce on Coding & reimbursement
Francis Nichols, Chair STS Workforce on Coding & Reimbursement
Julie Painter, STS Coding and Billing Manager
Courtney Yohe, STS Director of Government Relations

The ECMO Specialist Training Manual 4th Edition is now available!!
ECMO Specialist Training Manual 4th Edition

2019 ELSO Research Grants

ELSO 2019 Research Grant application process is now open to active ELSO center members. After logging into www.elso.org go to Resources - ELSO Research Grant Application for more information.

Newly Elected ELSO Steering Committee Members

We want to congratulate the newest members of the ELSO Steering Committee! Terms of service will begin September 2018 at the ELSO meeting in Scottsdale, AZ.

Chair-Elect - Matt Paden, MD

Education Chair - Bishoy Zakhary, MD

Protocols Chair - Lakshmi Ramen, MD

Technology Chair - Jonathan Haft, MD

Coordinator Representative - Guillermo Herrera, MBA, RRT-NPS

Member-at-Large - Darryl Abrams, MD

Thanks to all the qualified candidates who participated in this year's election!
Be on the lookout this fall for the 2019 election call-for-nominations!

ELSO Center Renewal Information.All center registration is now online through our website. For our existing centers up to January 2018 all memberships were on calendar year and will expire December 31, 2018. Normally dues will be required prior to your center membership expiration. This year only the payments were extended past the expiration of your memberships which was December 31, 2017 because of the new renewal system. Several emails were sent out and many of you have renewed for 2018. On May 15th, 2018 if you have not paid your 2018 membership dues your center will become inactive and you will only be allowed to renew after logging into our website. You will not be able to access the data entry system, discussion board, etc. At this point there will be a late fee associated with the renewal as well.
Later this year as your 2018 membership nears renewal you will get multiple emails reminding you to renew prior to December 31, 2018.
If you have recently joined ELSO your membership will expire one year after you joined and emails will be timed appropriately.

Join the discussion and begin fostering communication and collaboration among professionals who apply advanced technologies in the treatment of refractory organ failure

Tweets by ELSO

Meetings

SWAAC ELSO 2019

01/15/2019 - 01/19/2019
Location: Grand Nile Tower Hotel, Cairo, Egypt
Dr. Akram bdelbary +201221162552 info@swaacelso2019.com
Posted Date: 08/01/2018
website »

8th Euro-ELSO Congress

04/10/2019 - 04/13/2019
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Congress and Exhibition office Interplan AG, +49-4032559030 euroelso2019@interplan.de
Posted Date: 11/02/2018
website »

SEECMO 2019

05/03/2019 - 05/05/2019
Location: Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital St. Petersburg, FL
Joy Perkins 727-767-3587 jperki12@jhmi.edu
Posted Date: 07/19/2018

30th Annual ELSO Conference

09/12/2019 - 09/15/2019
Location: Austin, Texas
Kennethia Banks-Borden or Peter Rycus 734-998-6600 kbanksborden@elso.org
Posted Date: 04/04/2018

31st Annual ELSO Conference

09/23/2020 - 09/26/2020
Location: Hilton Waikoloa Village - Big Island of Hawai'i
Kennethia Banks-Borden or Peter Rycus 734-995-6600 kbanksborden@elso.org
Posted Date: 04/04/2018

ELSO Courses/Workshops

Advanced VV ECMO Workshop

02/15/2019 - 02/16/2019
Location: Wyndham San Diego Bayside Hotel, San Diego, CA
Kennethia Banks-Borden 734-998-6600 kbanksborden@elso.org
Posted Date: 10/09/2018
website »

Dallas 3 day ECMO course (ELSO Endorsed)

03/25/2019 - 03/27/2019
Location: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Donna Taylor 2144568445 donna.taylor@childrens.com
Posted Date: 10/26/2018
website »

Extracorporeal Life Support in Adult Critical Care: An ELSO Course

04/10/2019 - 04/13/2019
Location: Emory Conference Center, Atlanta GA
Kennethia Banks-Borden 734-998-6600 kbb@elso.org
Posted Date: 11/02/2018

Extracorporeal Life Support in Adult Critical Care: An ELSO Course

11/06/2019 - 11/09/2019
Location: Emory Conference Center, Atlanta GA
Kennethia Banks-Borden 734-998-6600 kbb@elso.org
Posted Date: 11/02/2018