ACE is proud to be referenced as a pioneer of accreditation standards in the new health policy statement from the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and Society for Cardiovascular Angiography (ACC/AHA/SCAI). The policy statement defines new standards for structured reporting of clinical and operational data in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. With the new policy statement, ACC/AHA/SCAI notes the “increasing importance of accreditation of cardiac catheterization laboratories.”

The policy statement was published online on March 28, 2014, ahead of print in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation. In the new health policy statement, ACC/AHA/SCAI will require facilities to report accreditation status and endorses structured reporting as a key element of quality care.

“This long-awaited document will be a tremendous help to cardiac catheterization facilities as they implement electronic health record systems,” said Charles E. Chambers, MD, FACC, FSCAI, Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, member of the ACC/AHA/SCAI policy statement writing committee and ACE Board of Directors. “With structured reporting, cath labs will be able to provide the appropriate level of clinical and administrative detail to facilitate ongoing quality assessment and meet the Appropriate Use criteria for coronary revascularization.”

The ultimate goal of structured reporting is to improve patient care by making procedural and workflow data available in a timely, consistent, and accessible manner. A standardized reporting framework will also reduce the documentation burden on clinicians, administrators, and staff, according to the policy statement.

“The ACC- and SCAI-endorsed Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence program (http://www.cvexcel.org) specifies the generation of structured reports as a criterion for accreditation. As per the ACC/AHA/SCAI new health policy statement, structured reporting must be considered one component of the overall quality improvement imperative for cardiovascular care.”

The ACC/AHA/SCAI policy statement was developed in collaboration with 11 other professional societies, including the American Association for Critical-Care Nurses, Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Health Level Seven International, Inter- American Society of Cardiology, Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and Society for Vascular Surgery.