Recent digital publications by Becker’s Hospital Review and the Society for Angiography and Cardiovascular Intervention (SCAI) identified ACE, the Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence, as a worthy achievement in the journey to elevated cath lab performance, with benefits for patients and physicians.
David Wohns, MD, Medical Director of Cardiac Catheterization, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, MI, credits the evaluation that their cath lab received from ACE in achieving superior quality assessments and outcomes. This formal, objective review gave Spectrum Health a starting point to assess the medical necessity of its procedures — "an outside perspective on our appropriateness," Dr. Wohns says.
The need to be proactive in utilizing appropriate use criteria is essential. “If we don’t take charge, someone else will, and we [could] start seeing denials for payments," Dr. Wohns says. "We have the ability to own this and to do it right from the beginning." By working with ACE, Spectrum Health aligned their Cardiac Cath Lab procedures to nationally established benchmarks to focus on vital quality indicators.
Michael Kutcher, MD, FSCAI, Director Interventional Cardiology, Wake Forest School of
Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, heralds ACE as a quality improvement resource that “is a powerful message to your community that you have had an independent agency give its stamp of approval to your cath lab.” ACE works with all cath labs through the accreditation process and, after accreditation is achieved, maintains support in the quality improvement process. “Cath labs that meet ACE standards receive ACE accreditation, whereas those that don’t [continue to] get help from the ACE team to address deficiencies and achieve the goal,” affirms Henry Jennings III, MD, Director Vanderbilt Cardiovascular Network, Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, Nashville, TN. “Formal ACE accreditation is a powerful achievement that allows you and your institution to announce to your colleagues, the media and most especially, your patients that your cath lab is of the highest quality,” said Dr. Jennings.
Read the SCAI Quality Improvement Toolkit, October Tip of the Month: http://www.scai.org/qittip/2012-10.aspx
Read Becker’s Hospital Review: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/5-essential-strategies-for-ensuring-appropriate-use-in-cardiology.html