Atrial Fibrillation
Best Practices: Best Practices for Sleep and Weight Referrals, including chart and visual care pathway.
Journal Articles: Article from Heart Rhythm that explains the process and methods for mapping and ablating the ligament of Marshall. Includes graphics, implications, and when to ablate.
Guidelines/Clinical Documents: Guidelines document outlining best practices for the management of AFib.
Journal Articles: Aim of study is to report the feasibility and safety of AF ablation in an ambulatory setting (Alaska Heart and Vascular Institute). Metrics include procedural complications, postoperative utilization of hospital services, and emergency room utilization.
Journal Articles: Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation has evolved enormously thanks to rapid improvement of modern mapping technologies, progress in catheter development and current possibilities for reduction of radiation exposure. Pulmonary vein isolation is thereby the cornerstone in this interventional treatment. Increased precision of catheter localization by modern three-dimensional mapping systems, faster and better processing of local electrograms and their immediate color-based visualization make it possible to treat even challenging arrhythmias very effectively. The commonly used three-dimensional mapping systems CARTO 3 (Biosense Webster, Irvine, Ca.) and Ensite Precision (St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, Min) differ in construction and principles of the underlying mapping technology. In this review article, we aim to emphasize the most important aspects of possibilities that make both systems so valuable for interventional treatment of atrial fibrillation. We present a modern workflow, that unites three-dimensional LA mapping with collecting relevant local information, image integration for refining the map and beneficial use of contact force based ablation approach.
Best Practices: Best practices for developing an efficient and quality-focused AF ablation program as part of a larger AF center of excellence, highlighting the experience of a single center and demonstrating how the same principles were adopted to implement a similar program at another institution.
Data/Registries: This sample report shows performance over time of patient in room compared to physician in room and patient in room access compared to when the patient arrives in the lab.
Data/Registries: This spreadsheet can be used to track procedure times in the EP lab. Once compiled into a database, reporting can be provided to stakeholders each month with physician times.
Business Plans: Business Plan Electrophysiology Laboratory – Staffing/Volume Increase
Business Plans: Extensive sample business plan presentation to utilize when advocating for an EP lab to administrative stakeholders. Includes AFib statistics, forecasted ablation growth, patient benefits, leadership strategy, and more.