It is good a thing for the people of central Maine to have cardiac catheterization service available to them. As a consumer of an available service, everyone considering paying for that service should do their due diligence in determining the quality of what is being purchased. People who are about to pay for and consume heart treatment generally do very little homework about the quality being provided.

The state’s Certificate of Need process is one that determines if a health care provider is allowed to purchase a piece of equipment over a specified dollar value or if a provider shall be allowed to offer a new service. The CON process has little or nothing to do with quality. Volume of procedures also has little to do with determining the quality of the cardiac catheterization service provided. The quality of the service is determined, for the most part, by the clinicians providing the treatment.

The American College of Cardiology is the organization that has “become the preeminent cardiovascular data repository for cardiac catheterization laboratory measures of care.” What consumers really need to consider when selecting who they get their health care from is what is the history of that provider’s treatment outcomes. In other words, how good a job do they do?

Large volume may be nothing more than a better marketing strategy, and conversely it may be because they have the most skilled staff. Consumers should do way more homework before putting their bodies at risk.

Todd L. Katz, Strong

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