Having a cardiovascular procedure is often a life-changing event for the patient and family. Quite often, it happens at a time when many other issues are swirling around in that patient™s life, so it™s not necessarily seen as a convenient addition to that patient™s schedule. I suspect that all persons involved have increased awareness of the serious nature of the impending procedure, especially when release forms are signed, which list all the possible complications that may result from that procedure.

Now that stenting is a commonplace procedure, the risks of abrupt vessel closure and being rushed off for emergency bypass surgery have essentially disappeared from the cath lab horizon. In addition, drug-eluting stents offer an advantage for patients in terms of reduced restenosis rates. These advances may translate to a dramatic reduction in hospital stay and the potential time for it all to sink in. All in all, the efficiency of the cath lab environment has kept pace with more sophisticated technologies, but the overall patient population has remained the same.

Both patients and families will leave the hospital with impressions of their stay, and it is my hope that all members of the cath lab team remember how important their roles are in this impression. Every gesture of kindness, caring and listening is of critical importance, and I believe is irrevocable in the individual patient™s mind and subsequent memory of this event. The cath lab environment is completely foreign to the patient and family, with equipment, sounds, hustle and bustle, as well as everyday procedures. While it may be YOUR 500th procedure, it is most likely the patient™s FIRST. As such, attention to truly caring for the patient, keeping family members informed, offering opportunities for questions to be asked and answered, as well as being provided with clear discharge instructions are part and parcel of a complete interventional procedure.

At some point, we will all be patients¦and when someone has gone the extra mile for us, in some small way, chances are we will remember that person for a very long time. Our care is in their hands, and we appreciate the time they took for our needs.

Just remember, there is a patient under those drapes, whose interest is survival, and whose need for communication and caring is great. As a cath lab team member, YOU play a pivotal role in every patient™s experience!