EP Lab Digest - May 2008 - (Page 20)

20 INSIDE THE EP LAB MAY 2008 Modular EP Units: Are They Possible? One Hospital’s Experience Chris Atherton, RN, BSN, MPA Director, Electrophysiology Services La Porte Regional Health Systems La Porte, Indiana Background La Porte Regional Health System (LRHS), a Clarian Health Partner, is comprised of La Porte Hospital, a 227bed community hospital; La Porte Regional Physician Network, made up of 19 physician practices; and La Porte Hospital Foundation, a philanthropic arm that supports the health system. La Porte Hospital was the first hospital in northern Indiana to achieve Magnet ™ recognition, an award that is given to an elite group of hospitals for exemplary nursing leadership and quality patient care. The facility has experienced significant growth over the past few years.The cardiology program has grown to include a successful interventional program as well as cardiothoracic surgery. In an unprecedented spirit of partnership, physicians are working together in ways that are unique and creative for extraordinary patient care. Doctors and clinicians from a broad spectrum of specialties have come together to form the Heart & Vascular Institute in order to screen and treat patients, as well as educate the community about heart disease. In the past, La Porte Hospital was able to provide care to all cardiovascular patients except for those needing cardiac electrophysiology (EP) services. Patients in need of EP services had to be transferred to hospitals in surrounding areas for treatment. It was decided that every effort would be made to obtain EP services for the patients in our community. Cardiac electrophysiologists would be recruited, as well as a director of electrophysiology services (at which time I was hired). Dr. Mark Dixon and his partners, Drs. Scott Kaufman and Raghuram Dasari, joined the medical staff in order to provide EP services. The Options The decision to provide EP services was an easy one. Where those services were going to be provided was not quite as simple. There were three alternatives for this relatively land-locked facility: shared space with the cath lab, new construction, or utilization of a temporary building. Sharing space with the cath lab would not be ideal, as there was only one cath lab in the facility. The current lab was already very busy — doing multiple interventions and diagnostic cases per day. To add multiple EP cases to this already busy lab would not be a satisfactory solution. The full compliment of services added would include electrophysiology studies, catheter ablations, and implantation of pacemakers, defibrillators, and biventricular devices. Besides the obvious problem with routine scheduling, there would be issues of what to do with emergent cases requiring intervention when the lab was already being utilized. Patient safety would be a prominent factor in the evaluation of this option. In addition, in order to share space, a new hemodynamic monitoring system would have to be purchased and the lab would have to be shut down during installation. This would require the facility to go on bypass for any cardiovascular emergency and on hold for the scheduling of elective cases during the installation period. Building a new EP lab was also not an ideal option. As with many healthcare facilities, space is at a premium at La Porte Hospital. There was no space available for construction of a new lab. It would also be a very costly option — not only for construction but also for the cost of the equipment. Future plans may call for the construction of new cath lab/EP suites; however, timing did not allow for the appropriate planning and development of this new area. The goal of the facility was to begin EP services by the second quarter of 2008, and new construction could not occur within that time allotment. The last and most viable option was to evaluate the possibility of utilizing a temporary building. La Porte Hospital had previously utilized a mobile cath lab for a short time during construction of the new cath lab, so we looked into the possibility for doing this for EP as well. Modular Devices Incorporated (MDI) of Carmel, Indiana was contacted and an evaluation of temporary options was undertaken. MDI could provide two options for the EP lab. One option was for a mobile lab, and the other option was for a modular lab. Both units were turnkey labs that included a complete X-ray system, hemodynamic system, contrast injector, a cine capture system, and digital archiving (PACS) capabilities. Both units had procedure and control rooms. However, there were differences between the two units that would affect our decision. The mobile lab had an approximate size of 8’ x 48’.The patients would enter See MODULAR EP page 22 Mark Dixon, DO, Medical Director, Electrophysiology Services, and Chris Atherton, RN, BSN, MPA, Director, Electrophysiology Services.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EP Lab Digest - May 2008

EP Lab Digest - May 2008 Is There an Under-Referral of Women for Atrial Fibrillation Ablation? A Hybrid Approach to the Cure of Atrial Fibrillation Contents Letter from the Editor Spotlight Interview: University of Michigan Health System 10-Minute Interview: Amit J. Shanker, MD Modular EP Units: Are They Possible? One Hospital’s Experience All About My Job: Technician Supervisor (New Column!) Alcohol Septal Ablation in the Cath Lab: What is it All About? About the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society: Interview with Martin J. Gardner, MD, FRCP(C), FACC Email Discussion Group: May 2008 Second Annual Salary Survey My First Year in Electrophysiology: What Have I Got Myself Into? Highlight on Technology: Video-Audio Integration for the EP Lab On the Horizon: A New Remote Catheter Manipulation System Striving for Excellence in the Care of Cardiac Patients Five Reasons to Participate with a Professional Organization Suspected Shunting of Defibrillation Energy in the EP Lab Can Digital Music Players Cause Interference with Implantable Devices? ECG 101: Ambulatory ECG Monitoring Events Calendar Industry News and Products Classifieds Advertisers Index

EP Lab Digest - May 2008

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