Sg2, a Vizient company, has published a white paper on the effects of the rapid increase in cardiovascular disease and related challenge of timely patient access to lifesaving interventions such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures. The paper, “The Rising Tide of Cardiovascular Disease: A Looming Crisis for Cardiovascular Intervention Resources” notes an 8% increase in demand for inpatient procedures and a 25% increase for outpatient procedures over the next 10 years.
“Hospitals struggling to provide timely access to interventions such as TAVR, will likely have sicker patients who need more intensive services and longer hospital stays.”
“We are seeing significant growth in heart valve diseases such as aortic stenosis due to underlying risk factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes, as well as other cardiovascular diseases such as congestive heart failure,” said Joshua Aaker, PhD, director, Sg2. “Hospitals struggling to provide timely access to interventions such as TAVR, will likely have sicker patients who need more intensive services and longer hospital stays.”
To address this issue, Sg2 recommends health systems focus on short-term care redesign and long-term investment plans for catheterization labs, care teams, resources and patient beds to match forecasted demand. The paper includes multiple short- and long-term strategies including:
- Optimizing existing capacity via flexible scheduling protocols and identifying low-risk procedures that can be shifted to noninvasive approaches.
- Adopting AI-enabled tools for patient management to help identify high-risk patients, assess social determinants of health (SDOH) and ensure the efficient provision of guideline-directed medical therapy.
- Collaborating with home health agencies to enable same-day discharge for certain cardiovascular procedures to reduce bed-day utilization.
- Leveraging remote patient monitoring for managing chronic conditions such as heart failure, hypertension and post-TAVR follow-up to optimize workforce efficiency.
- Acquiring or building additional ambulatory surgery centers or procedural suites to alleviate capacity constraints.
“By strategically optimizing existing resources and making the necessary investments in people, technology and infrastructure, health systems can improve their cardiovascular service lines, enhance patient care and position themselves to meet the increasing need for complex, resource-intensive procedures like TAVR,” said Aaker.