We get it. Selecting new ECG technology probably isn’t the most exciting thing you’ll do today. But with heart disease on the rise, it may be the most important. For too many practices, ECGs are viewed as commodities—they just need to be “good enough.”
The problem is that “good enough” equipment may not be good enough to trust with your patients’ hearts. Created by the World Heart Federation, World Heart Day informs people around the globe that cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease and stroke, is the world’s leading cause of death claiming 18.6 million lives each year. 1 As World Heart Day approaches, it’s a good time to think about the best way to implement, manage and connect your ECGs. If it’s been a while, here is some information to get you started down the right path.
Primary care clinicians represent the front lines of a complex healthcare system. You are tasked not only with treating acute and chronic conditions, but also with identifying health risk factors early to help improve patient outcomes and keep system costs lower.
Hillrom’s cardiology devices help clinicians quickly detect signs of heart disease and stroke, and connect data to the specialists who can help patients effectively manage and treat their conditions. Atrial fibrillation (AF) confers a 5-fold increase in stroke risk and is reported in 13% to 31% of incident ischemic stroke in population studies.2 Early detection of atrial fibrillation can enable treatments to reduce ischemic stroke and mortality.3
Upgrading the cardiology devices in your clinic or physician practice can result in the following benefits:
Improve Patient Outcomes: Help improve patient outcomes by offering resting ECG, stress ECG, spirometry, Holter and other screening solutions that are simple enough for use in primary care, yet equipped with comprehensive tools a specialist needs.
Maximize Efficiency: A variety of connectivity options, including WiFi, HL7, XML and DICOM communication make it easy to send timely, accurate data directly to your EMR.
Improve Financial outcomes: Maximize your return on investment by keeping reimbursable procedures in house, rather than referring to another provider. It is important to consider standardizing your devices to support the varying needs of different care settings. With the right partner, standardization makes a lot of sense.
Only One Interface to Manage: The need to connect data across multiple care settings is growing. With only one interface to build, manage and support across care settings, the benefit is clear: standardized workflows are efficient workflows.
Familiar User Interfaces: Similar user interfaces can make life easier across teams as well. For clinicians, that can mean reduced training needs. For IT and biomeds, support calls are reduced and they tend to have an easier time responding to those they do receive, thanks to fewer variables between care settings.
One Vendor Partnership: Partnering with one vendor can simplify processes when it comes to support and parts. Purchasing can go through one vendor and common replacement parts can be kept on hand more easily. When support or repairs are needed, there’s only one vendor to work with.
Selecting ECG devices might not be something you do very often. But an accurate, diagnostic-quality ECG can help to diagnose a life-threatening heart condition. Don’t trust their hearts to “good enough” technology. By involving the right team and asking the right questions, you are starting down the path to the best decision for your patients and your clinicians.
World Heart Day’s theme in 2022 is “Use Heart for Every Heart.” Take action to promote early diagnosis and treatment for cardiovascular disease. “Use Heart” means to think differently. If your devices are not top notch, it is time to consider other options and possibly a new vendor partnership.
References
- World Heart Federation. What is CVD? https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-day/cvd-causes-conditions/what-is-cvd/ (Accessed 2022, August 17).
- Hayden, N. Hannon, E. Callaly, D. Ní Chróinín, G. Horgan, L. Kyne, J. Duggan, E. Dolan, K. O’Rourke, D. Williams, S. Murphy, P.J. Kelly. (2015) Rates and Determinants of 5-Year Outcomes After Atrial Fibrillation-Related Stroke, A Population Study.
- Svennberg, L. Friberg, V. Frykman, F. Al-Khalili, J. Engdahl, M. Rosenqvist. Clinical outcomes in systematic screening for atrial fibrillation (STROKESTOP): a multicentre, parallel group, unmasked, randomized controlled trial. 2021 Oct 23;398(10310):1498-1506. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01637-8. Epub 2021 Aug 29.
DICOM is a trademark of National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
About CME: CME Corp is a full-service healthcare equipment and turn-key logistics company providing personalized support and service. With service centers nationwide, CME offers more than 2 million medical products from a total of over 2,000 manufacturers. CME is a healthcare system's complete equipment solution by providing product selection, sales, warehousing, assembly, staging, direct-to-site delivery, installation, and biomedical services for all its equipment.
About Baxter: Baxter's diagnostic cardiology innovations are simple, secure, and connected to best meet the needs of our current healthcare landscape. The diagnostic cardiology portfolio consists of resting and stress ECG devices, ambulatory monitoring and ECG management solutions that facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment and simplify clinical workflow.
