Third in a Series: Low-Volume Cardiac Surgery Programs as Centers of Excellence
In our continuing series on low-volume cardiac surgery programs, we now incorporate the Center of...
In the previous blog post (refer to Rethinking Ambulatory Cardiovascular Strategy: Part One – The Big Picture posted on 4/19/18), I discussed the rationale for the need to reconsider your ambulatory strategy.
From the perspective of the cardiovascular service line administrator, let’s look at example approaches and some real world situations to illustrate these issues.
Example Approaches to Enhancing Ambulatory Strategy
Ambulatory strategy starts at the clinical and operational level. Here are some examples of areas that can make a direct or an incremental impact on your approach to ambulatory care:
Example: Creating same-day discharge PCI programs using/expanding transradial arterial access.Transradial access lowers bleeding complication rates; access closure is more reliable with pressure alone (without closure devices); and earlier patient ambulation helps reduce nursing time required per patient. Research in example hospitals has shown a savings of from $1,200 to $1,900 per case when radial access is used.[1] Estimates of the use of radial access in the U.S. are currently in the 25% range, with wide variation by geographic location.
Example: ED-Based Chest Pain Observation Units. Care of the patient presenting to an ED with chest pain and/or angina remains a common yet challenging aspect of emergency medicine. Acute coronary syndrome typically presents in nonspecific fashion. The development and evolution of the ED-based observation unit has helped to safely assess and diagnose those most at risk for an adverse cardiac event. Furthermore, there are several provocative testing modalities to help assess for CAD. (High Sensitivity troponin screening (HSt) possesses extremely high predictive power to rule in or out acute MI, so this may decrease need for increased space considerations.)
Example: Case selection criteria for hospitals performing PCI without on-site surgical backup. The SCAI/ACC/AHA Expert Consensus Document – 2014 Update on PCI without On-Site Surgical Backup documents the recommendations for patient selection, treatment and potential transfer. This assists the attending physician in making clinical decisions, including ultimate judgements about ambulatory versus inpatient versus transfer-out treatment planning.
Example: Many hospitals have successfully re-engineered their heart failure care by assigning case managers and implementing rapid-response to patient follow-up – including telephonic monitoring, cardiac rehab, outpatient clinic visits and other ambulatory approaches. Particularly applicable to bundles, such programs have successfully decreased inpatient stays, readmissions, ED visits and overall cost per case, while stressing carefully managed ambulatory processes.
Example: Cardiac rehabilitation programs reduce readmissions and save money, but most patients don’t participate. Maximizing rehab participation can have a dramatic impact on overall utilization and must be a key part of any ambulatory strategy. Ensuring that physicians stress its importance and incorporate cardiac rehab referrals for their patients can aid in increasing participation.
Example: Simple Integration through Co-Management Agreements. CV physicians participating in co-management agreements can be legally incentivized to address a specific set of priority goals and objectives, including prioritized ambulatory strategies custom to the organization. Examples are numerous, such as staffing outreach clinics, developing best-practice protocols/policies and procedures, re-engineering care, lowering cost per procedure, enhancing patient experience, hitting a target percent of outpatient versus inpatient cases, and others.
Example: Case Managers/Care Coordinators/Nurse Navigators. To prevent leakage, many hospitals have re-engineered care through the use of case managers who are responsible for individual patients throughout the entire episode of care. They insure patients are linked to appropriate providers, follow-up appointments are scheduled, and patient experience is enhanced. Additionally, minimizing readmissions through case management has proven to be very successful.
Example: Proprietary Episode of Care Case Management Platforms. New IT platforms are being designed to facilitate the management of individual cases over a defined episode of care with interoperability between networked facilities and real-time reporting. Primarily used by case managers, they seek to coordinate inpatient and outpatient utilization to maximize efficiency, effectiveness and overall cost of care.
Example: Optimization of CVIS. Most hospitals have invested in state-of-the-art data collection and reporting systems for their cath lab, cardiology and vascular services which offer structured reporting – either with or without cardiovascular picture archiving and communication systems (CPACS). Many are still dysfunctional. Optimization projects focus on customizing interfaces with hospital IT systems, structuring and customization of reporting templates for local physicians, and maximizing technology to support existing clinical work flow. The efficient operation of CVIS can have a dramatic impact on ambulatory work flow.
Example: Lowest-Cost Setting. A teaching hospital with a full-service cardiovascular program purchased a rival “heart hospital” near its main campus for use as an ambulatory care and short-term surgical facility. This facility has a fully-licensed cath lab. With the goal of utilizing the lowest-cost setting to lower its cost per case, the main hospital’s cath lab manager is attempting to schedule elective diagnostic caths at the other facility to free-up its main cath lab schedule, enhance the patient experience and lower the overall costs of routine scheduled procedures.
Conclusion
As inpatient volumes are impacted by ambulatory strategies, and value-based reimbursement and episode of care models continue to proliferate, hospitals will be challenged to provide appropriate access to care through ambulatory facilities. Cardiovascular services play a vital role in such strategies through maximizing the appropriate applicability of outpatient-related services, the distribution of services among its geographic market area, and the operation of such services to maximize both physician participation/integration and the overall patient experience. Service line administrators have a vital role to play in this strategy development.
If you are interested in learning more about ambulatory strategies, bundled pricing, cardiac services strategic development, service expansion or low volume cardiac surgery programs and/or other programmatic needs for cardiovascular or other services, please contact CFA at (949) 443-4005 or by e-mail at cfa@charlesfrancassociates.com.
[1] Refer to www.dicardiology.com/article/economic-benefits-transradial-access
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