A former cath lab medical technician dubbed the “serial infector” has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a hepatitis C outbreak in New Hampshire and several other states.

A hospital in New Hampshire whose patients may have been exposed to hepatitis C has revised processes for securing syringes in its cardiac cath lab after an investigation by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the states Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found the facility failed to meet standards. The HHS reported Aug. 9 that an additional patient who received care in the cath lab tested positive for hepatitis C, bringing the total to at least 31.

In a real-world setting, many administrators struggle to balance pinching pennies and delivering care. As hospital reimbursement dwindles and innovation blossoms, hospital staff must find creative ways to save a buck without skimping on care. Staff members from three hospitals share their solutions ranging from data dissemination to innovation to physician engagement.

A cath labs culture plays a key role in staff recruitment and retention. But what contributes to a good or bad culture?

More than 80 percent of respondents to a recent Springboard Healthcare survey of cardiac catheterization labs reported experiencing increased or steady volumes. Despite that trend, volume ranked as the top challenge for cath labs in 2011 and was projected to remain their main concern in 2012.

An analysis of catheterization reports from the first 10 facilities to undergo review by the Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE) found that many fell short for documenting patient risk and appropriateness of PCI. Rectifying shortcomings is achievable, according to one hospital that went through the accreditation process, and the changes can lay the groundwork for other improvements.

LAS VEGASCoronary angiography has a variety of limitations in the cardiac cath lab due to both operator and technological causes, according to a May 9 presentation by J. Dawn Abbott, MD, of Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, at the 35th annual meeting of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI).

While STEMI patients benefit from reperfusion therapy with PCI, a two-center study published May 7 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found than one-third of patients referred for primary PCI from the emergency department did not have a STEMI and 36 percent were deemed to be false-positive activations. An accompanying editorial questioned the impact of these false-positive activations and concluded that they lead to high costs and increased risk.