St. Mary’s recognized as a leader in Canadian healthcare
St. Mary’s General Hospital is proud to be honoured with the Biosense Webster Centre of Excellence in Fluoroscopy Reduction Award recognizing the hospital as a leader in innovative healthcare. As one of only three hospitals across Canada and only two in Ontario that has achieved over 100 entire-case, zero-fluoroscopy ablations, the award was a celebration of the achievements of the entire team dedicated to providing the best, high-quality and leading-edge care for patients.
Many cardiac procedures require the use of fluoroscopy, a small x-ray imaging device that provides real-time, dynamic and static images giving doctors 2D mapping of a patient’s heart. It is a safe and accurate diagnostic tool used in many procedures to assess internal functions and organs to generate a concise diagnosis. A goal of the cardiac electrophysiology program at St. Mary’s has been to reduce the use of fluoroscopy during ablation procedures to treat heart rhythm problems. Zero-fluoroscopy ablations means relying on other technology and information such as ultrasound and since December, has become the standard of practice at St. Mary’s.
Achieving zero-fluoroscopy ablations are more costly and required an investment and commitment by the leadership team at St. Mary’s. For the medical team, it required a commitment to invest additional time in learning new techniques, hands-on training through educational events, and practise. It required an understanding that in the beginning, procedures would initially take longer as they were learning together. The entire team at St. Mary’s committed to this from the beginning and did not give up, willing to put in the extra effort necessary to reduce fluoroscopy in ablations. Through their hard work and dedication, zero-fluoroscopy ablations procedure times have gotten shorter and shorter, and in most cases, require less time than before.
The ability to move to zero-fluoroscopy ablations has many benefits to both staff and patients. The use of fluoroscopy requires medical staff to wear heavy lead-lined aprons for long periods of time that increases the physical drain and that can, over time, lead to chronic musculoskeletal pain as well as prolonged exposure to radiation. Zero-fluoroscopy ablations also makes it possible for healthcare staff that are pregnant to continue providing and assisting in procedures throughout their pregnancy.
For patients, zero-fluoroscopy ablation procedures take less time and produces a reduction in barriers to ablation for patients who otherwise would not be able to access this procedure if they were pregnant or undergoing radiation therapy.
Benefiting both staff and patients, this achievement would not have been possible without a concerted investment of both time, resources and money on the part of the medical staff and leadership at St. Mary’s.
It was essential that the goals, efforts and commitment were aligned from leadership to the medical team, and they were. St. Mary’s is ahead of the curve in Canada and riding the wave that we are seeing globally. As the Regional Cardiac Centre, St. Mary’s is leading the way in innovative healthcare for patients in our community and our dedicated and talented team of healthcare professionals.