Cardiovascular Business - September/October 2008 - (Page 14) Market Share StrategieS “having a scheduling system that allows us to flex and adjust to circumstances and physicians’ schedules is important to throughput.” Pat Jansen, vice president, cardiac services, WellStar Kennestone hospital in marietta, Ga. spectrum of technologies including 64-slice CT, cardiac MRI, 3D echo, a combined peripheral and cardiac lab and afib ablations with 3D mapping. “This is what sets us apart—we can offer the entire package,” Deible says. With non-invasive imaging, any type of screening for cardiac or peripheral problems can be used to get patients into the cath lab before a disease progresses too far. “Whether you are looking at anatomy for LV function, finding a problem before the patient is in big trouble is the goal,” according to Deb Dewald, cath lab supervisor. With 3D mapping, atrial fibrillation ablation procedures have been cut down to one to three hours, meaning “you are much less likely to do damage and more likely to find the culprits,” Dewald says. Additionally, the NIH center attributes its success to having a hybrid lab to treat the entire cardiovascular system, not just the coronaries. “Smaller hospitals don’t always have these technologies and that is a fantastic promotional piece,” Deible concludes. Patient tracking and workflow For WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Ga., it is not so much the technology that gives its cardiac program the competitive edge, but how that technology is used. “The key here is that we are seeing the need to leverage technologies to manage workflow and optimize patient throughput,” says Candice Saunders, senior vice president and hospital administrator. “We are trying to see how we can use technology to manage other dimensions of patient care and do a better job of patient tracking and throughput.” To do this, Kennestone worked with PatientFlow Technology to implement a plan to improve workflow in the cardiac cath lab. Using rigorous data analysis and queuing theory, the plan called for setting aside one or two of the existing four labs, depending on the day of the week, for urgent cases. This ensures that these patients are cared for in a timely manner, without causing delays or cancellations in the day’s elective cases, according to Pat Jansen, vice president, cardiac services. Since the plan was implemented, average waiting times for urgent cases have dropped 50 to 60 percent. Additionally, they have seen a 90 percent reduction in overtime, from a total of eight and a half hours past prime time for all but emergent cases, to a total of only 40 minutes of overtime in June. “Having a scheduling system that allows us to flex and adjust to circumstances and physicians’ schedules is important to throughput,” Jansen adds. “We were able to offer one cardiologist elective pacemaker slots that met his schedule instead of simply telling him to just get in line.” WellStar also employed telemetry ECG equipment for the ambulances so that they can transmit ECGs from the field to the ER. “For the first quarter of 2008, 100 percent of heart attack patients were treated in the cath lab within 90 minutes of arrival in the ER and we’re seeing lower times every month,” he says. “The wireless ECGs enabled us to meet that benchmark.” No matter what the technologies are, the consensus seems to be that human resources are just as important. “We have to have the right people to deliver cardiac care. Our quality and safety—and the patient experience—really tie it all together,” Saunders says. a combination of Ct imaging and 3D mapping has enable D. Scott Kirby, mD, and colleagues of Cardiology associates in mobile, ala., to perform up to 50 ablation procedures per month. 14 Cardiovascular Business September/October 2008
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.