ACC CV SUMMIT: Optimizing Your Cath Lab When Volume is Falling

Saturday, January 18, 2014

MedAxiom Consulting, initially reviewed national cath lad trending data from the MedAxiom database indicating a 26% decrease in catheterizations from 2002 through 2012. In addition, PCI were down 29% in this same period. These declines have been caused by advanced medical management techniques, trial results, appropriate use guidelines utilization and rigid payer rules.

So, what does this mean? Management of these services becomes even more important including identification of waste and variation. Organizations should be looking at Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and make sure they are linked to business objectives, are well defined and easy to understand and have actionable performance improvement strategies.

Ms. Brown provided a list of key metrics and sources for these measures that can be used when looking at your cath lab KPI’s. She encouraged the attendees to use data to change behaviors and improve business processes. To do this, management must engage the physician leadership and other areas of the organization.

Dr. Matt Phillips provided a case study from Austin Heart when they identified issues in performance in their cath lab. With 11 interventionalists in the group, schedules were backing up and physicians were developing poor scheduling patterns. This system disadvantaged some physicians and favored others and saw real inefficiencies in compliance of this schedule.

Solutions implemented at Austin Heart were identified and supported with data and strong physician and administrative leadership. A compact agreement was developed and signed by all parties, formal conflict resolution training was required, compensation was realigned, and regular meetings were held to discuss issues and review performance data. The results were cath volume increased 16% and PCI volume increased 32%.

Dr. Phillips closed the presentation with recommendations to the attendees to:

• Listen to your customers
• Track you most meaningful data (KPI’s)
• Engage physician leadership to change behaviors and improve business processes, and
• Report frequently, communicating your successes