Cardiovascular 
During her session at Periop Leader Week 2026, “How to Open a Cardiac ASC,” Deb Yoder, RN, MHA, BSN, CNOR, CASC, CEO of Aligned Surgery & Healthcare Consulting, laid everything out for ASC leaders in candid, practical terms. Her overriding message: A cardiovascular (CV) ASC is not your average or…
St. Luke’s University Health Network has opened St. Luke’s Heart Hospital on its St. Luke’s Anderson Campus in Easton, Pa. Construction began in 2024 on the five-story, approximately 355,000-square-foot, $252 million facility—the “largest construction project in St. Luke’s more than 150-year history, both in dollar figure and square footage,” according…
The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines has determined that its most recent perioperative guideline, published in 2024, “remains valid and current.” ACC stated that the decision came “after evaluating new evidence published over the last two years on perioperative cardiovascular management of…
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has submitted formal comments to CMS on the 2027 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System proposed rule. The ACC states that its letter includes: Support for increased reimbursement for cardiac PET/CT services Support for maintaining higher reimbursement…
Integrated Surgical Center of Arizona (ISCA) has joined the network of ASC developer and operator Regent Surgical. Located in Avondale, Ariz., ISCA is a multispecialty ASC led by three Arizona physician organizations: IMS Care, described as Arizona’s “largest independent multispecialty physician group”; AZ Heart Arrhythmia Associates; and Valley GI Consultants.…
To open up hospital capacity and lower costs, Banner Health is expanding use of its co-owned Phoenix-area ASCs to host lower-acuity electrophysiology (EP) and interventional procedures, according to a new article in Cardiovascular Business. The publication’s interview with Wilber Su, MD, director of cardiac EP at Banner Health and professor…
St. Luke’s University Health Network previewed its new $252 million St. Luke’s Heart Hospital, which will open at the 500-acre St. Luke’s Anderson Campus in Easton, Pa., this October. The five-story, 140-bed, approximately 355,000-square-foot facility is the largest construction project in St. Luke’s more-than-150-year history, both in terms of dollar…
According to a report from WJHG-TV, the Cardiovascular Institute of Northwest Florida in Panama City has expanded procedural offerings at its ASC, which opened in March. Treatments now available at the facility include heart catheterizations, pacemakers, defibrillators, and laser atherectomy, a procedure that removes plaque from blocked arteries in the…
Much of the discussion and research on opioid-sparing postoperative pain management has centered on orthopedics and spine procedures, where opioid prescriptions have in many cases been successfully reduced or even eliminated in favor of nerve blocks and multimodal pain relief strategies. Now a major Canadian research project has examined the…
The American Heart Association has issued a scientific statement in its journal Circulation on the topic of perioperative anemia and patient blood management in cardiac surgery. Calling perioperative anemia and red blood cell transfusions important risk factors for morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery, it notes that up to 50%…
