New interventional cardiac catheterization programs are often created to compete with programs at neighboring hospitals and do not improve patients' access to timely care, according to a study by the Rand Corporation.
The results showed that while the country saw a 16.5 percent increase in cardiac catheterization programs between 2004 and 2008, the percent of the population that gained timely access to these programs increased just 1.8 percent.
"New interventional cardiac catheterization programs have not been located in areas where they can help patients gain timely access to needed heart services. Instead, the focus has been on competing with other hospitals,” said lead author Thomas W. Concannon, PhD, an assistant professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine, in the news release. "The widespread expansion of this service has added significantly to health care costs and there is now strong evidence that it has not improved patient care," he said.
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