A recent clinical study from Overlake Medical Center utilizing the Bardy Diagnostics Carnation Ambulatory Monitor (CAM) patch was presented at the 2021 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) Conference.
“Accelerating Proper Evaluation of Emergency Department Patients for Arrhythmia Concerns with Discharge Use of ECG Patch Monitors,” authored by Marie Yabut, Sarahi Gomes-Duarte, MA., and Eric Shipley, MD, MBA., explores the role of the CAM ECG monitor as a solution for outpatient evaluation after presenting symptoms of cardiac arrhythmias with an inconclusive diagnosis in the emergency department. The decision to either admit or discharge patients for outpatient evaluation is typically arbitrary and there are few alternatives. The abstract concludes that emergency department adoption of ECG monitoring provided an alternative to hospital admission while providing a diagnosis 3 times sooner than average and dramatically reducing return visits to the emergency department.
By utilizing the CAM patch on 412 patients over the 2-year period, the average time of emergency department discharge to diagnosis was 7 days compared to the previous average of 21 days. In addition, emergency department readmissions within 30 days of the initial visit decreased to 7% of study patients compared to readmission of 40% of patients who had the same type of cardiac complaints in the year prior to CAM patch availability.