Catharina Hospital and Medtronic: Demonstrably providing even better cardiovascular care

Improving the quality of cardiovascular care, sharing knowledge and working seamlessly with healthcare providers in the region, so that a patient always receives the right care in the right place. These are the main goals in a renewed agreement signed on Tuesday by the Catharina Heart and Vascular Centre and Medtronic, one of the world’s largest companies in the field of medical technology. Last Tuesday, Piet Batenburg placed one of his last signatures of his twelve-year career as chairman of the Catharina Hospital.

Regional collaboration

Medtronic and Catharina Hospital are now spreading their wings and taking flight. An important part of the renewed agreement is the collaboration within the region. Per therapy, both parties determine how they can best collaborate with hospitals that are referring patients for treatment to the Catharina Hospital. This allows patients to go through the preparation and follow-up stages around an operation as close to home as possible, and they will only be referred to Catharina if it is really necessary. Overtreatment can be prevented. Another important consequence of this is that by working (together) efficiently, the scarce capacity of hospital staff is not exceeded. “The ambition for the coming years is that patients will benefit even more from this. Both our own patients and the patients who are referred to us,” says Piet Batenburg.

A lot of experience

Together, both parties have already gained a great deal of experience in organizing optimal cardiac patient care that is smart and efficient. Results of this collaboration include smart care processes in and around the Heart Lounge, the central area where patients are looked after in a relaxed environment, before and after their same day discharge treatments – such as balloon angioplasty and cardiac arrhythmia treatments.

In this way, the treatments of patients with similar conditions and care needs are planned together on one specific day, where possible. This ensures better quality, fewer complications and a faster patient flow. Patients spend less time in hospital and cardiologists can treat more patients one after the other, which positively influences access time to care. Many of these care pathways jointly developed by Medtronic and the hospital, were subsequently rolled out to other hospitals. The 5000 patients who are treated every year in the Heart Lounge in the Catharina Hospital are very pleased with the new way of working. They rate the department with an average of 9.

Sharing knowledge

In the renewed agreement between the Catharina Hospital and Medtronic, knowledge sharing is a central thread. Catharina Hospital is a Centre of Excellence in the field of cardiovascular disease patient care in the Netherlands. Medtronic develops and improves therapies and medical technology. Both parties have agreed to join forces in a very focused way in those areas where their levels of expertise touch. In this way, they can jointly contribute to science and bring cardiovascular patient care to the next level on a large scale.