Sensing Savvy

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) established in the Affordable Care Act has further focused hospital efforts to improve quality and patient outcomes.

In a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) report to Congress, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery was ranked as having the highest potentially preventable readmission rate. Volume flow measurement provides an objective, intraoperative assessment of the quality and patency of grafts and could help prevent costly re-operations and readmissions.

Chief, Division of General Thoracic Surgery the Director of the Baylor College of Medicine Lung Institute at CHI St. Luke's Health–Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, TX94th
AATS President (2013-2014)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is striving to improve the efficiency and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries undergoing CABG surgery. CME also is seeking to elevate collaboration among hospitals, physicians and post-acute care providers to improve the coordination of care for the Medicare patient from the CABG patient’s initial hospitalization through a 90-day recovery period following hospital discharge.

The International Federation of Health Plans was founded in 1968 by a group of health insurance industry leaders, and is now the leading global network of the industry, with 80 member companies in 25 countries. Its goal is to assist in the maintenance of high ethical and professional standards throughout the industry.

The Left Internal Mammary Artery (LIMA), also known as the Left Internal Thoracic Artery (LITA), has been the gold standard conduit of choice for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for several decades.

More than 30 years ago, Boylan et al published a study in the Journal of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery in which the long-term results of 200 patients who underwent CABG, 100 of whom received a LIMA — left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) bypass graft and the second 100 who received a saphenous vein (SVG) to LAD bypass graft, were analyzed.

Doctors from Inova Heart & Vascular Institute, Falls Church, Virginia, recently published their findings after comparing the precision of three risk scores used to measure the quality of cardiac surgical care. They compared the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) surgical risk score, primarily used in the United States, with the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE II, EuroSCORE I).
The original EuroSCORE I was developed between 1995 and 1999 from data of 19,000 cardiac surgery patients, most of whom had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. About a third underwent valve surgery. The EuroScore I was updated in 2012 to be more user-friendly and applicable to a greater number of procedures.

“Doctors and other health workers pay dearly for the relentless stress of patient care, a plight compounded by mounting bureaucracy and accelerating change in the healthcare industry,” Dr. Mark Greenawald concluded after tragically losing one of his ob-gyn patients during childbirth, and being unable to successfully process the grief from the experience.

Cardiothoracic surgery, Twitter chats and website design may not seem like the perfect combination, but when it comes to accessing the latest journal articles, connecting with patients and expanding your practice, they can be invaluable.

At the 2016 STS Annual Meeting, a panel of cardiothoracic experts shared how these and other internet technology trends are impacting cardiothoracic surgery.

Here are three technology trends impacting cardiothoracic surgery you need to know:

As a surgeon, you're keenly aware of the danger of medical errors and extremely diligent to avoid making them.

Medical errors as a cause of death now rank as the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer in the United States. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that errors result in the deaths of around 250,000 patients per year.

One of the costliest areas in a hospital is the operating room. Despite its high costs, the OR is also one of the top revenue generators, bringing in between $15 - $20 per minute, and that’s just for a basic surgical procedure.

But as budgets become tighter and patients and insurance companies seek a greater value for their money, hospitals are examining ways to increase efficiency in the operating room. Imagine the money and time wasted each time a case is delayed by a search for a piece of missing equipment.