We monitor the performance of health authorities in delivering treatment services funded by Cardiac Services BC.
Treatment services include heart surgeries, diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization, implantation of cardiac electronic devices, electrophysiology studies and ablations, and structural heart procedures.
Cardiac Services BC has maintained a cardiac patient registry for more than 20 years. The registry is called the Heart Information System, or HEARTis. The data collected facilitates patient care, informs clinical decision making, supports quality improvement and provincial planning, and contributes to outcomes research.
Cardiac Services BC monitors and reports outcomes for cardiac procedures across programs. This evaluation framework is consistent with the indicators recommended by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
Our regional partners collect information to measure wait times, procedure safety and effectiveness, clinical processes and patient outcomes. Indicators vary across procedures. Examples include:
- wait times (referral to acceptance, acceptance to procedure)
- procedure complications
- length of stay
- transfusion rates
- medication prescription rates at discharge
- medication utilization patterns pre- and post-procedure
- short- and long-term readmission rates
- repeat procedures
- short- and long-term quality of life
- short- and long-term stroke risk
- short- and long-term mortality
Every year, Cardiac Services BC brings together procedure physicians and other clinical stakeholders to participate in a review of quality of care indicators for cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology and transcatheter heart valve. In 2015/16, we established quality reviews for two additional procedures: atrial fibrillation (AF) ablations and heart rhythm implantable devices.
Provincial-level outcomes are reviewed and interpreted by the group, with the goal of identifying opportunities for improvement and learning from best practice. Although variation occurs, BC provides a very high level of care overall when benchmarked to other jurisdictions.
