Routine Cardiac Catheterization Expanding to Saturdays?

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Expanding availability of elective, non-emergent cardiac catheterization services to Saturdays might significantly reduce length of stay, with no effect on clinical quality reports a recent economic impact study.

The study, published online in the American Journal of Managed Care found that reduced length of stay did not result in total cost savings, however.

In January 2009, Mayo Clinic Rochester expanded cardiac catheterization service availability (CSA) to Saturdays with the "goal of timely access with improved efficiency of care," write the authors.

Despite succeeding in greatly reducing length of stay—a statistically significant, adjusted average of 1.73 days—total costs of care were similar prior to CSA expansion.

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ICYMI: TAVR Out-Performs Surgical Replacement

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

This video from Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology's Pulse TV shares the biggest piece of news from the American College of Cardiology's annual conference last month---that Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) out-performed surgical valve replacement in the PARTNER II trial.

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Benchmarking and Quality Improvement – Essential Characteristic #5

Posted on by Kurt Jensen
cardiovascular quality improvement

Is it obvious? Highly effective cardiovascular teams demonstrate commitment to cardiovascular quality improvement.

In a 2014 report entitled "Cardiovascular Care High Performers," the National Committee for Quality Assurance detailed the importance of benchmarking and continuous cardiovascular quality improvement.

What is the practice culture of effective cardiovascular teams, according to the report? It's characterized by a "strong organizational commitment to improving quality, to openness at being measured on performance and having results shared within the practice, to working on closing gaps and to trying new strategies to engage patients."

Commitment and openness, especially to being measured, sharing results, and working on closing quality gaps, has been proven to improve outcomes, from a single group to an entire state.

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