MINNEAPOLIS – Cardiovascular information systems (CVIS) are not delivering quantifiable financial benefits, according to cardiac cath lab directors who participated in an independent national survey completed in January on behalf of Wolters Kluwer Health and ProVation Medical. The survey of hospital cardiac cath lab directors was designed to measure the use and satisfaction levels with CVIS and procedure documentation systems.
Thirty one percent of cardiac cath lab directors reported no quantifiable improvements in revenues or the revenue cycle since implementing CVIS, due in part to continued reliance on dictation for physician documentation. Overall, 69% of respondents reported that physicians continue to dictate, despite clinical procedure documentation for physicians being identified by 51% of cardiology directors as an “extremely important” CVIS feature.
Four in 10 cardiac cath lab directors whose physicians dictate felt that documentation issues have at least a “moderate” impact on revenues. One-fourth also estimated that they could realize an annual savings of $100,000 or more by eliminating the costs associated with dictation and transcription.
“When properly designed and implemented, technological systems for cardiology should streamline workflow, reduce costs and increase revenue,” said Arvind Subramanian, President & CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions and ProVation® Medical. “However, when they are difficult to use, don’t offer a solid return on investment (ROI) or do not integrate with other information systems, they cannot deliver the full scope of improvements health care organizations require to achieve their patient care and financial goals.”
This was borne out in the survey. The majority of respondents reported being only “somewhat satisfied” or “satisfied” with CVIS. Lower satisfaction rates were most closely associated with problems interfacing with other systems and hardware (10%); failure to function as promised (8%); not user-friendly (7%); poor vendor support (6%); and failure to offer a comprehensive array of features (5%).
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