Creating a New Care Delivery System for Patients Needing an Implantable Cardiac Electrical Device (ICED)

Abstract

A new care delivery system was developed to address the growing demand for timely access by both in-patients and out-patients for implantable cardiac electrical device (ICED) therapy. The need for change was based on the fact that the service delivery model and clinical care model were non-standardized and fragmented. The situation was further exacerbated by budget and operational constraints such as lack of allocated operating room time, a shortage of anesthesiologists, and difficulties transporting in-patients from referring sites to implanting sites within a large geographical health authority.