Group purchasing organizations: optimizing cardiac device selection, therapy delivery, and fiscal responsibility

Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have played a major role in supporting health care delivery in recent years as the healthcare industry has faced stronger economic pressures. Consequently, a position statement was drafted to act as a guideline for a GPO in creating a fiscally responsible, yet unrestricted environment for physicians to select the most appropriate cardiac device for their patients. This cardiac device selection guideline is to be implemented in hundreds of member hospitals but may be of use in non-member hospitals as well. The guideline will only be effective when the physicians or cardiac device caregivers have the knowledge and skills to optimally program and match device therapies and algorithms to individual patient needs.