In this article, the authors from Bryan LGH Hospital’s EP program discuss their participation in the Medtronic HEARTmark benchmarking program.

Long recognized as one of the premier electrophysiology (EP) services in the Midwest, the EP program at Bryan LGH Hospital performs over 700 EP procedures each year, from device implants to complex ablations. Bryan’s EP program credits its success and growth to a staff committed to identifying innovative methods to foster growth and improve quality. It was in this context that Bryan’s EP program joined HEARTmark®, Medtronic’s proprietary national EP benchmarking program, in 2008 and used it as a springboard for performance improvement.

Benchmarking Trends in EP
Medtronic’s HEARTmark benchmarking program collects de-identified patient data, financial metrics and implant trends from participating EP programs on a quarterly basis to gain real-time understanding of trends within the EP service line. Each hospital’s data are analyzed and benchmarked against that of other participating hospitals and available Medicare data. Benchmarks allow the hospitals to compare their data with that of other programs nationwide to identify both best practices and opportunities. For example, practitioners may benchmark against Medicare’s DRG mix assumptions to determine whether their coding practices are in variance with the national norms, and if so, to identify and address the cause of the variation. This management tool generates a hospital-specific report for each participating institution, providing insight into all facets of the facility’s EP service line, from payer and procedure mix to contribution margins, costs and revenue. Annually, an aggregate report with de-identified hospital data from all participating institutions is also generated.

Susan Heilman, Director of Economic Strategies and Solutions at Medtronic, explained: “Current data regarding EP service operations were not readily available in the marketplace, so facilities had no basis for comparison. Medtronic developed HEARTmark to help administrators at participating facilities understand performance metrics for their EP programs in a timely way, allowing for improvement of both quality and efficiency, which ultimately leads to better patient care.”

Experience with HEARTmark at Bryan LGH
The CV Services at Bryan LGH seized the opportunity to pilot the HEARTmark program in 2008, with Medtronic’s Healthcare Economics Department. They have been an enthusiastic advocate of the program ever since.