Providing the right level care in the right place: Zio cardiac monitoring now available at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital

If you experience palpitations, dizziness, light-headedness, fatigue, anxiety or fainting, your doctor may suggest ambulatory cardiac monitoring to determine the cause of your symptoms. Traditional cardiac monitoring for such symptoms required wearing electrodes and wires on your chest for 2 to 4 weeks in order to record the electrical activity of your heart, which can be cumbersome and uncomfortable to wear. Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital is pleased to now offer Zio cardiac monitoring, a much more compact and comfortable monitoring system, on site through its Non-Invasive Testing Departments.

Zio monitors are accurate, and most importantly, simpler to use than older systems. With its patch design, there are no electrodes, so most patients can wear it without discomfort or inconvenience for the full course of their study, typically 2 weeks in duration.

“We recommend cardiac monitoring for many of our patients who have been seen in the Emergency Department, in the outpatient office or who are admitted to inpatient units,” says Section Chief of Cardiology Leonard Lilly, MD. “Prior to implementation of the new system, these patients were discharged with an order for outpatient cardiac monitoring, but now that we offer this patch monitoring system onsite, they can be directly instructed on its use, return home with their monitor and receive their results sooner than before.”

For referring providers in the community, there is the option to request that their patients receive their patch monitoring system at either Brigham and Women’s Hospital or BWFH, meaning they can choose the location that is most convenient for the patient.

“By offering the patch monitoring system here at the BWFH campus, we hope to make the process just a little easier for our patients and their families” says Lilly. “The goal is to properly diagnose the issue as quickly as possible in order to establish a plan of care.”