Hospital lab receives accreditation
Cardiac cath lab only cath facility in California with ACC recognition
The Adventist Health/rideout cardiac cath lab just received accreditation from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) – it is currently the only one in California to receive the recognition.
What’s a cath lab? Eric Cooper, director of cardiovascular services and the cath lab at Adventist Health/rideout, said they take patients who have urgent needs, such as heart attacks and blockages in the heart. They can also diagnose patients exhibiting symptoms to try and figure out if they have a heart-based problem. The cath lab procedures use minimally-invasive approaches through points of access, such as the groin, to the cardiovascular system.
“It’s basically to see if the heart vessels are open. We also look at vessels in the legs to make sure those are
open,” Cooper said. “... People come in after having symptoms at home and the doctor takes a look into their heart and sees if those arteries are the culprit.”
He said the ACC is an accrediting body that works with the National Cardiac Data Registry (NCDR), a registry for cardiac metrics – such as what hospitals are doing and their results.
“It gives a snapshot of how you’re performing and allows you to make some changes,” Cooper said.
The ACC and NCDR work to come up with evidence-based practice protocols and take all of the information they gather and pick out things that they want to highlight and influence when it comes to patient care and quality, Cooper said.
According to a press release, the essential components of cardiac cath lab accreditation outlined by the American College of Cardiology include cath lab governance, quality measures, pre-procedure assessment, during-procedure care coordination, post-procedure hand-off and monitoring and clinical quality initiatives.
Cooper said as part of the accreditation process, representatives from the ACC visited the hospital and did a tracer – where they take a patient from the start, follow them through the cath lab, see how the nurses interact with orders, see how doctors talk to patients, see how informed a patient is and more.
Data submitted by the cath lab to the NCDR is also reviewed by the ACC surveyors, as are notes from physician meetings, patient charts and formal policies.
“They grade you according to the best level,” Cooper said. “When you get an accreditation, it means that you have met or exceeded those expectations on a national level.”
He said one of the reasons they applied for the accreditation is to help push them to continue to improve and make sure they’re practicing up to the latest standards, along with showing the community that they’re adhering to the best practices.
“Standardization is the reason why we really want to do this,” Cooper said. “Several studies show that the more you standardize and decrease variation, the more predictable your outcomes will be for quality patient care and patient experience and, so, to get physicians on that same trajectory can sometimes be difficult without evidence because they are scientific, they want to know why. So the ACC provides the ‘why’ behind the change to the community and also to our physicians and our staff so that we can continue to push ourselves to improve.”
He said they’re also working on another accreditation through the ACC for their chest pain center – they’re due to have surveyors at Adventist Health/rideout in July.
“When (patients) come for cardiac care, they will be receiving treatment and treatment algorithms according to the best practices recommended on a national level,” Cooper said.
Adventist Health/rideout will also be hosting a number of events in February for Heart Awareness Month. For more information, visit www.adventisthealth.org/rideout/giving/ events.