February 2012

Technology doesn't hold a monopoly on innovation. Innovation can arise in the form of new processes or even in new ways of thinking.

As more cardiovascular practices integrate with hospitals to save on overhead, data management challenges exacerbate the arduous process. Many have to overcome several hurdles to create an almost seamless system.

If a hospital or practices priority is to make money, then it may want to think twice about instituting a transradial PCI program. But if it wants to lower costs, free up resources and be positioned for a shift in reimbursement toward outpatient care and quality incentives, then developing expertise in transradial access will pay dividends, proponents of the procedure say.

Clinical registries allow for benchmarking of one provider to another, linking measurement to performance improvement and leading to the betterment of overall quality of care. However, the cost of participation to individual providers may be a drawback.

In order to provide quality cardiovascular care and continue to make headway in improving outcomes, it is necessary to develop middle-ground policy positions related to the future design of more sustainable Medicare and Medicaid programs.