AHA Integrating Deborah’s Echo Report Process into a National Best Practices Program Standard
Deborah Heart and Lung Center, New Jersey’s only specialty heart, lung and vascular hospital, and an Alliance member of the Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute, has recently been recognized by the American Heart Association (AHA) for a “Best Practice” in improved identification and treatment of patients with aortic stenosis.
Deborah joined a pilot program with the AHA in 2020 to test and validate new measures around identification, diagnosis, referral and treatment for patients with aortic stenosis, in order to add to a national learning collaborative aimed at sharing best practices to positively impact the diagnosis and treatment of these patients.
According to Carolyn Magnotta, Director of Deborah’s Process Improvement Department, the AHA recognition underscores the coordinated efforts on the Deborah team to help early identification of these patients, in order to begin care intervention as soon as possible.
“This recognition is for ‘Echo Mining’ or the pulling of data from our echo database,” she added. “Sometimes all the information you need to identify and help a patient is at your fingertips, but putting the pieces together can sometimes be the hard part.”
Josie Norcross, RT, Process Improvement Registry Manager, who spearheaded much of the project, and presented at a recent AHA meeting, explained how the echo mining helps.
“Essentially we built a specially-designed question database to assist in identifying aortic stenosis patients in the system that holds our completed echo reports,” she said. “Patients may be here for something else, but this locator system can provide an early indicator. This is cross-referenced against our medical records to see if the patient has already been flagged for aortic stenosis.”
Norcross added: “In either case, for those identified patients we begin a patient engagement campaign to help them become a partner in their diagnosis and treatment, including sharing educational materials for disease management; pointing them to resources available in patient organizations; and share the results of this initiative with professional organizations that can help maximize the impact of an integrated initiative like this.”
Said Magnotta: “We are delighted that the AHA recognizes our efforts on behalf of our patients and that they understand the value that our echo mining could have on patient outcomes. We are exceptionally gratified that all our hard work translates into a national best practice standard.”
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