Cardiovascular disease remains one of the most significant clinical and financial challenges facing healthcare organizations today. As health systems work to improve outcomes for patients with heart disease and stroke, they must also navigate staffing shortages, rising operational costs, fragmented technology environments, and increasing demands for clinical efficiency. These challenges can limit access to critical patient information and create barriers to timely, informed clinical decision-making.
The Challenge of Fragmented Cardiology Data
Cardiology care generates data across multiple care settings, facilities, and technology platforms. ECGs, stress tests, ambulatory monitoring studies, and other diagnostics are often produced by different manufacturers and stored in separate systems, requiring clinicians to navigate multiple applications to assemble a complete patient history.
Many healthcare networks also operate multiple EMR systems across hospitals, clinics, and outpatient sites, increasing IT demands and workflow complexity.
ECG data quality and accessibility can vary as well. Many primary care devices still rely on manual print-and-scan workflows instead of direct digital transmission, creating static records that may limit diagnostic value and make interpretation more difficult.
Why Standardization Matters
Large health systems often perform hundreds of ECG exams every day, making consistency across facilities essential. In fact, top healthcare networks perform more than 100 10-second ECG exams daily1, and more than 100 million ECGs are performed annually in the United States2. At this scale, minimizing repeat testing is critical to improving efficiency, controlling costs, and avoiding delays in patient care. Yet 1 in 4 ECG exams may need to be repeated, and more than 10% of tests may be falsely labeled due to improper lead positioning.3 Standardized workflows, connected devices, and high-quality ECG acquisition can help reduce variability and improve diagnostic confidence across the health system.
Yet differences in equipment, clinical standards, and workflows can lead to repeat testing, delayed diagnoses, and reduced efficiency. Clinicians rely on accurate, high-quality cardiac data to make confident decisions, and inconsistencies in acquisition or interpretation can affect both patient care and reimbursement.
Additionally, cardiologists reviewing studies are often located away from the point of care. When patient information is spread across multiple platforms, they may need to access several systems before reviewing history, performing calculations, and making a diagnosis, potentially delaying treatment and follow-up care.
Building a More Connected Cardiology Ecosystem
Healthcare organizations are simplifying cardiology infrastructure to create a more connected care environment. Centralizing cardiac data, standardizing technology platforms, and improving interoperability can reduce redundancies while ensuring critical patient information is available when and where it is needed.
A key part of this strategy is adopting enterprise-wide cardiology solutions that standardize workflows across the continuum of care. Baxter's cardiology portfolio helps connect care settings, diagnostic devices, clinicians, and patient data through integrated solutions that support both clinical and operational goals.
Leveraging Baxter's Connected Cardiology Solutions
Baxter offers cardiovascular diagnostic technologies that support providers across care settings, from primary care clinics to hospitals and integrated delivery networks. These solutions help clinicians capture, manage, review, and share cardiac data more efficiently.
One example is Cardio Server, Baxter's ECG data management solution software. Cardio Server centralizes cardiac diagnostic data, giving clinicians a more complete view of a patient's cardiovascular history. By bringing data from multiple devices and locations into a single workflow, organizations can reduce complexity, improve information access, and support more informed clinical decisions.
Baxter's portfolio also includes diagnostic cardiology devices, such as the ELI 280 and ELI 380 ECG, Diagnostic Cardiology Suite, and Q-Stress Cardiac Stress Testing System, that are designed to deliver high-quality ECG acquisition and clinical accuracy. Combined with centralized data management, these solutions help standardize workflows and reduce reliance on fragmented processes.
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The Impact on Patients and Providers
By streamlining cardiology systems and standardizing diagnostic workflows, healthcare organizations can:
- Improve clinician access to comprehensive cardiac patient records
- Support faster and more informed clinical decision-making
- Reduce workflow inefficiencies and administrative burden
- Minimize unnecessary repeat testing and associated costs
- Enhance care coordination across departments and care locations
- Increase patient satisfaction through more seamless care experiences
As cardiovascular disease continues to place pressure on healthcare systems, organizations that invest in connected, scalable cardiology infrastructure will be better positioned to improve outcomes while managing operational demands. With Baxter cardiac care solutions, healthcare providers can create a more efficient, data-driven cardiology ecosystem that supports a higher level of care.
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References
1. Statistics based on data collected from internal report: The ECG Billings Data. Complete data on file at Baxter.
2. Tison GH, Zhang J, Delling FN, Deo RC. Automated and Interpretable Patient ECG Profiles for Disease Detection, Tracking, and Discovery. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2019;12(9). https://doi.org/10.1161/circoutcomes.118.005289
3. Statistics based on data collected from internal reports: Repeat ECG Research Summary. Complete data on file with Baxter.
US-FLC198-260014 (v1.0) 07/26
About Baxter: Baxter and its subsidiary, Welch Allyn, offer broad portfolios of medical devices and products to healthcare providers worldwide. The comprehensive array of devices and products in these portfolios address a wide range of medical care needs such as diagnostic, critical care, hospital and surgical products, patient monitoring, and physical exams. Capitalizing on Welch Allyn’s 100 years of innovation, 268,000 customers and 100 configurable products, Baxter is uniquely positioned to help transform global healthcare for years to come.
About CME: CME Corp is the nation’s premier specialty distributor of healthcare, laboratory, and imaging equipment. We partner with over 2,000 manufacturers to offer more than 2 million products. In addition to an extensive product portfolio, we also offer project management, CAD-based layout, design and 3d modeling, warehousing, assembly, staging, consolidated, need-by-date direct-to-site delivery, and biomedical and technical services, all staffed by CME employees. Our mission, to help healthcare facilities nationwide reduce the cost of the equipment they purchase, make their equipment acquisition, delivery, installation, and maintenance processes more efficient, and help them seamlessly launch, renovate, or expand on schedule, is supported by service locations strategically located across the country.
