Cardiac telemetry 2016: An overview of guidelines and clinical practice

Abstract

The pervasive technology of cardiac monitoring has greatly advanced patient care for several decades. Since its advent, telemetry has been used in a variety of settings to guide medical management in patients who are either acutely or non-acutely ill. Evidence from several studies supports the benefits of the 2004 American Heart Association (AHA) telemetry guidelines in stratifying patients into 3 groups based on their individual cardiac event risk. It has been shown to reduce hospital costs without compromising patient care as well as eliminate overflow of telemetry units. This article reviews the AHA cardiac telemetry guidelines and evaluates the current status of its implementation, the general benefits, as well as its limitations.

Reducing Over-Utilization of Cardiac Telemetry with Pop-Ups in an Electronic Medical Record System

“…Several strategies have been studied to reduce the overuse of cardiac telemetry [ 6 , 8 ]. While there is a lack of consensus on the most effective method to improve the overutilization of cardiac telemetry [ 9 ], we developed a continuous quality improvement strategy and investigated the effect of reminder pop-ups, in an electronic medical record (EMR) system, on the duration and utilization of cardiac telemetry.…”