A patient rolling into one of the nation’s 3,360 cardiac catheterization laboratories (at about 1,820 sites), according to IMV’s Medical Information Division, puts his faith in the quality of the cath lab’s equipment and staff. Since cardiac catheterization gained momentum in the 1970s, cath labs have maintained their own quality assurance (QA) programs without the prospect of facing down an outside accreditation committee.
It’s not that no one is minding the store. At a minimum, most labs are located in hospitals and are inspected under the hospital’s Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) accreditation process. And experts agree that most cardiac cath labs have an adequate QA program in place. But they also acknowledge that QA is usually the first area cut back when cost-containment measures or personnel constraints strike.
As the cath lab industry grows, labs face increasing scrutiny. Some outside groups, namely state health departments and insurance companies, are beginning to peer into cath labs to judge the quality for themselves. The prospect of outsiders yanking licenses or withholding reimbursement has prompted the industry to look at the controversial idea of creating its own accreditation program — and thereby heading off the more onerous prospect of outside regulation.
Outside pressure
“I think we need to do it ourselves before someone does it for us,” says Carl Tommaso, M.D., immediate past president of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCA&I) and a cardiologist at Rush North Shore Medical Center (Skokie, Ill.). “We went 30 years without accrediting, but outside pressure is really making us do it.”
Please refer to the July 2001 issue for the complete story. For information on article reprints, contact Martin St. Denis
