Strategies to enhance the interventional suite experience

  • By Philips
  • March 15 2025
  • 4 min read

White paper - Strategies to enhance the interventional suite experience

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This research paper provides a retrospective review in validation of patient-focused design concepts and concludes that patients are looking for enhancements both outside of and within the cath lab. Download the full white paper for detailed information about strategies aiming to minimize anxiety in patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic interventions.

At-a-glance:

  • Patients undergoing cardiology and radiology interventions, especially cardiac catheterization, often experience high pre-procedure anxiety
  • Reducing anxiety in these patients is crucial not only for their well-being but also for potentially improving outcomes
  • The research identified key factors for developing patient-centric solutions
  • Our review of 42 publications, including 13 on cardiology, highlighted major patient pain points during diagnostic and interventional procedures
Nurse comforting patient prior to an interventional procedure

A fresh perspective from the interventional suite

Feelings of anxiety are common among patients who undergo cardiology and radiology interventions. Patients undergoing a cardiac catheterization experience the highest levels of anxiety just before the procedure.

These issues can lead to unfavorable physiological changes. Therefore, strategies aiming to minimize anxiety in patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic interventions are not only important for the patient but could potentially improve outcomes [1].

Conclusions and recommendations

Patient experience has been shown to be positively associated with many quality and safety outcomes, such as adherence to clinical guidelines, increased preventative behaviors and lower inpatient mortality [4].

  • Information: Staff training to provide patients with pre-procedural information positively contributes to lowering anxiety levels among patients [1,2,3,4,5].
  • Positive distraction: Distraction through music, imagery or atmospheric lighting can reduce patient anxiety levels, lower their heart rate and blood pressure and can positively affect their pain perception [6,7,8,9,10].
  • Comfort: More comfortable mattress and room temperature in the interventional suite would allow patients to avoid discomfort and better maintain lying flat for long periods of time.
A patient-focused approach can benefit the interventional suite - infographic

Next steps

Strategies aiming to minimize anxiety in patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic interventions are not only important for patient comfort but could potentially improve outcome and provide hospitals with an opportunity to improve their standard of care [1].

Many companies support hospitals in implementing patient-focused care environments in the interventional suite. For Philips, this study has reconfirmed the relevancy of creating an engaging, multi-sensorial interventional suite environment applying positive distraction for patients through technologies such as our Ambient Experience solutions.

This paper also provides design direction for future developments to help health systems further improve the patient experience, positively impact outcomes and lower the cost of care.

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Footnotes
  1. Delewi R, Vlastra W, Rohling WJ, et al. Anxiety levels of patients undergoing coronary procedures in the catheterization laboratory. Int J Cardiol. 2017;228:926-930. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.11.043.
  2. Coronary angioplasty and stent insertion (How it’s performed); National Health Service of the United Kingdom; 2018; NHS website for England - NHS.
  3. Jung SB, Christensen, NL, Jensen K, Jensen IbE. Children centered care: Minimizing the need for anesthesia with a multifaceted concept for MRI in children aged 4–6. European Journal of Radiology. 2018;107:183–187.
  4. Betts D, Balan-Cohen A, Shukla M, Kumar N. The value of patient experience: Hospitals with better patient-reported experience perform better financially. Deloitte. 2016:22. us-dchs-the-value-of-patient-experience.pdf .
  5. Schupp CJ, Berbaum K, Berbaum M, Lang E V. Pain and anxiety during interventional radiologic procedures: Effect of patients’ state anxiety at baseline and modulation by nonpharmacologic analgesia adjuncts. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2005;16(12):1585-1592. doi:10.1097/01. RVI.0000185418.82287.72.
  6. Robinson PS, Green J. Ambient versus traditional environment in the pediatric emergency department. Heal Environ Res Des J. 2015;8(2):71-80. doi:10.1177/1937586714566412.
  7. Hole J, Hirsch M, Ball E, Meads C. Music as an aid for postoperative recovery in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2015;386(10004):1659-1671. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60169-6.
  8. Belland L, Rivera-Reyes L, Hwang U. Using music to reduce anxiety among older adults in the emergency department: a randomized pilot study. J Integr Med. 2017;15(6):450-455. doi:10.1016/S2095-4964(17)60341-8.
  9. Etzel-Hardman D, Kapsin K, Jones S, Churilla H. Sedation reduction in a pediatric radiology department. J Healthc Qual. 2009;31(4):34-39. doi:10.1111/ j.1945-1474.2009.00035.x.
  10. Van Der Heijden MJE, Araghi SO, Van Dijk M, Jeekel J, Hunink MGM. The effects of perioperative music interventions in pediatric surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS One. 2015;10(8):1-11. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133608.
Disclaimer
Results are specific to the institution where they were obtained and may not reflect the results achievable at other institutions. Results in other cases may vary.