American College of Cardiology

Cardiac Catheterization Regulation—Overview

Public demand for determining the appropriateness and effectiveness of health care has never been higher. This demand has led to increased state regulatory scrutiny of hospitals and other health care providers and in some cases, a strong interest in the regulation of cardiac catheterization laboratories. The unfortunate reality is that some states are seeking to place strict and rigid controls on the practice of medicine in cardiac catheterization laboratories through regulatory enforcement of volume criteria included in clinical practice guidelines published by professional organizations.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) are committed to working with individual ACC and SCAI physician members, state ACC chapters, and state regulators to help identify and define appropriate and acceptable measures of quality for cardiac catheterization laboratories that meet the goal of state regulation and the public demand for high quality cardiovascular care. The ACC and SCAI encourage the use of continuous quality improvement initiatives and outcomes data monitoring as mechanisms by which states may measure cardiac catheterization laboratory performance, thereby improving the quality and value of health care. The ACC and SCAI do not encourage state reliance on volume criteria taken out of context from clinical practice guidelines. Clinical guidelines are meant only to be guidelines for clinical practice that necessarily change over time to reflect new advances in science and technology.

In response to the recent thrust of state developments in the regulation of cardiac catheterization laboratories, the ACC and SCAI have developed an information packet to guide members and state chapters in working collaboratively with state regulators to achieve the goal of high quality cardiovascular care. Please contact your ACC chapter or Governor for further information.

For more information about State Advocacy, please contact stateadvocacy@acc.org, or call 301-897-2612.