SCCT: New Resource Guides Healthcare Facilities Starting a Cardiovascular CT Service

Arlington, VA — The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) introduced the SCCT Starter Kit, a collection of useful resources to guide healthcare facilities through each stage of starting a cardiovascular CT service.  

Curated by clinicians working in partnership with industry professionals, the Starter Kit enables a new cardiac CT user to leverage the best practices from experienced users and to provide the highest patient care, according to Scott Schubert, CEO of Arineta and chair of the SCCT Advisory Council, which provides industry and policy insight to the SCCT Board of Directors and spearheaded the project.

“Prior to the Starter Kit, it can take many months for a new cardiac CT practice to assemble the necessary resources,” said Schubert. “I believe the Starter Kit can shorten that timeline to weeks, excluding the facility construction time and time to hire staff.”  

Although the evidence for cardiac CT is clear, Schubert explained, there is a significant problem today with availability and access to cardiac CT.

“During my experience in industry leading a CT equipment business, I found that large hospitals had the experience and resources to start a cardiac CT practice, but community hospitals and outpatient clinics needed help,” he said. “Although all cardiac CT practices will benefit, the focus of the SCCT Starter Kit is to help these community hospitals and outpatient clinics to provide high quality cardiac CT for their patients at point-of-care.”

The kit provides resources such as pro formas, PDF documents, videos, website links, journal articles, and customizable Word and Powerpoint documents in four stages: upfront planning, equipment and facilities, services and personnel, and daily operations.

“We interviewed many cardiac CT practices about how they started their practice, and what tools and materials were needed. Industry members of the Advisory Council also have deep experience about the processes for selecting equipment, and preparing for facility construction,” Schubert said.

The beginning stage, or upfront planning, helps site administrators explore project planning and budgeting for a new cardiovascular CT service line, and includes financial and operational planning templates. Next, the equipment and facilities section focuses on deploying the most significant investments required for setting up a CT service, including scanner selection, resources for clinical procedures and site planning considerations.

The services and personnel section provides guides for training and credentialing, as well as tools to help institutions execute a capabilities analysis and develop a strategy for clinical services to be provided as part of a CCTA service. The final stage of the Starter Kit covers daily operations, including policy, procedure and report templates, and tools for marketing the new cardiovascular CT services to a variety of audiences.

For more information and to subscribe, visit https://scct.connectedcommunity.org/SCCTstarterkit.  

About the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography

Founded in 2005, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) is the international professional society devoted to improving health outcomes through effective use of cardiovascular computed tomography (CCT), with members from over 85 countries. SCCT is a community of physicians, scientists and technologists advocating for access, research, education and clinical excellence in the use of CCT. For more information, please visit www.SCCT.org.