For-profit and not-for-profit healthcare facilities may value the health of their cath lab employees differently. Without a clear indication of the bottom-line impact, some hospitals may be forgoing protective equipment and sacrificing the long-term health of their workers. Should the C-suite prioritize worker health when allocating investment dollars? 

When North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley set out to build a new hybrid OR equipped with robotic angiography, they had no idea the project would set a new bar for project planning and execution across the health system, bring “exponential improvements” in image quality and “exponential reductions” in radiation dose and contrast media, or that they’d finish the project almost a month early without a single change order and $600,000 under budget. Teamwork, meticulous planning and virtual reality-guidance played an essential role in refining and perfecting this image-guided surgery suite even before a pen was put to paper.

Sometimes the planets align. This time, it’s to the advantage of patients at risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest. While a study recently confirmed cardiac arrest survival rates fall significantly on nights and weekends, another study shows that a wearable defibrillator can help patients 24/7.

The 2013 merger between Edward Hospital & Health Services and Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare created one of the largest health systems in Illinois. As is often the case with this type of amalgamation, executives of the newly named Edward-Elmhurst Health faced numerous integration challenges and had to determine the best way to maximize each organization’s strengths. Thankfully, one thing that required little effort was deciding on a cardiology system.

The vision was clear. The experienced heart and vascular team at the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute in Chicago needed a cardiovascular information system (CVIS) to stretch across its seven hospitals and 100 ambulatory care centers, physician offices and clinics. 

Tectonic shifts in healthcare delivery demand a broad collective skillset measured out among cardiologists, nurses, cardiology service line directors and practice administrators. Priorities need to focus on training and outreach from clinical, operational and financial perspectives as well as strengthening the heart team. 

Soon, payers will reward cost-effective, high-quality procedures, while both healthcare providers and patients increasingly will demand efficient, diagnostically accurate nuclear cardiology procedures with low radiation exposure.

At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, like many hospitals and medical centers across the country, cardiac PET is emerging as the go-to imaging modality for a growing list of clinical scenarios.