First Day and CPAC

 Today was my first day as a senior consultant in Cardiology at Palmerston North Hospital (Mid Central DHB). The day started at 8am with Christine taking me to "hand over" rounds where the house staff present cases that come in over the weekend. Patients are assigned to different specialty services or stay  on the medicine service with a specialist consult. The Cardiology service took 2 patients onto its service for a total of 10. I was impressed with some of the house staff  presentations and not so impressed with others. Following "hand over" I was taken to Infection control met Lisa the administrator for Cardiology  and got my ID badge and beeper. I reviewed a exercise stress test on a patient who had a ventricular triplet  with  exercise. Navin the  Registrar was concerned about the ventricular triplet so I gave him a article from the NEJM on ventricular ectopy and exercise. Finally I was instructed on how we refer cardiology patients to Wellington using CPAC.                                                                                             

*http://www.oag.govt.nz/2011/scheduled-services/part5.htm

Clinical Priority Access Criteria (CPAC) refers to an outpatient categorisation system that allows the prioritising of clinical conditions. CPAC assists Cardiologists to assess relative patient need and in doing so, ensure that patients who require treatment more urgently are seen first and treated first. For example if a patient scores high he is moved up the list and receives CABG surgery as a priority and will have surgery scheduled in less than 48 hours.  While a lower priority patient may have to wait 90 days for bypass surgery. I had a great first day and am looking forward to a wonderful experience in the New Zealand health care system. So stay tuned to kiwicardiology. Cheers from New Zealand!