Cardiovascular Business - October/November 2007 - (Page 12) Cvis: CardiaC repOrtiNg that’s hard tO Beat pass with echo imaging and echo reporting; six hospitals also have cath imaging; and one hospital has American College of Cardiology (ACC) data collection capabilities. “For the healthcare system, the key benefit to using Heartlab was around cath reporting. In fact, we started looking at this system from the cath procedures reimbursement perspective,” says Donna Snover, manager, multidisciplinary solutions team, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. “Prior to Heartlab, there was no way to track any additional procedures the physician would perform while in the cath lab because everything was on dictation.” Snover also recounts the benefits of hemodynamic monitoring, one of the functions available on CVIS. She says “Our Southwest Heart & Vascular Institute was able to automate pulling off the [data] from the hemodynamics system into Heartlab, where before they had an FTE who was manually typing it. Now it comes over from hemo, goes into Heartlab, and then she can import the data and export it to ACC. So that’s a big time savings and the quality of the data is there.” Hemodynamic monitoring is tied to CVIS clinical reports, notes Alex. “The physiologic recording systems pass information pertaining to demographics, wave form data and measurement, logging of events, medication and supply usage, as well as ongoing vital signs. It is important to have this data entered once, in one place, and flow into the report,” he says. “We have seen that we have been able to move on things quickly and if we have a problem, we have not just our gut feeling about what’s going on. We have real numbers and real information to tackle these issues,” says Kelly Neal, RN, MSN, MBA, director of cardiovascular services at The Washington Hospital in Washington, Penn. The 239-bed hospital with 17 cardiologists has three cath labs and five echo labs. They installed McKesson Horizon Cardiology in 2005, one of about 100 in use nationwide. Before CVIS, “we needed to have inventory; we had no idea what we were spending on our cost per case,” says Neal. With the automation, that detailed information is available at anytime. or not be accomplished at all, can now be done with a few keystrokes on CVIS. One of the most important reporting features relates to collecting data for the ACC national registries. Collecting data for cath lab certification, comparison to other facilities, reimbursement, pay-for-performance and insurers is becoming more necessary. Participation in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, a quality measurement program for cardiac and vascular facilities, provides them with access to research and data—two essential tools to keep moving forward. To participate, facilities must use an ACC-certified CVIS. “I will tell you that the ACC [data collection] was one of the things we were most pleased with because what comes out of our reports maps directly to the ACC and those mandatory seals are 80 percent complete,” says Neal. The ACC information also is critical to Memorial Hermann Healthcare. An organization on the move with three newly constructed hospitals and another on the way, they consider being named an Academic Center of Excellence a necessity on two fronts: reputation and reimbursement. The ACC data also can be used for research purposes which is critical to the Memorial Hermann System—an organization on the move with 14 hospitals which include three hospitals in the Texas Medical Center (a level 1 trauma center, a hospital for children and a rehabilitation hospital), as well as three heart and vascular institute locations and eight suburban hospitals. “Being named an Academic Center of Excellence is an advantage for many reasons, including enhanced reputation and reimbursement level,” commented Snover. “But, most importantly, it lets our community know that we are committed to a higher quality of care.” Far reaching results Data that counts As technology advances, so does the quest to acquire and analyze data. What might have taken years to do using paper charts, CVIS does more than eliminate thick charts, save time, streamline operations and more effectively monitor billing. As the center of cardiac care, it is the primary connection within a facility that links cardiologists, patients and administrators inside and out. This article first appeared in the August 2007 issue of Health Imaging & IT. 12 Cardiovascular Business October/November 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.