Keep each heart patient’s tests, medicines, procedures and review dates on one record.

Cardiac care is long. A patient may arrive with chest pain, leave with a test list, return with reports and then come back every few months for years. The clinic’s work is to keep that thread unbroken between visits and between doctors.

In many clinics the thread is spread over a diary, printed reports, a prescription pad and the memory of the cardiologist. A missed review or a lost echo report is easy to overlook.

Reception books patients by cardiologist and session, takes the referral letter and collects old reports at the desk. Technicians run ECGs, echocardiograms and treadmill tests in a test room, and each report goes to the cardiologist for reading. The cardiologist records symptoms, blood pressure, risk factors and the current medicine list, then decides whether a further test, an angiogram or a procedure is needed.

Prescriptions change often. Doses are adjusted at each visit, and the patient leaves with a printed list of every medicine, its dose and the reason it was changed. Patients on blood thinners or with a pacemaker need dated checks.

Billing covers consultations, tests and packages. Visiting consultants and the hospital where procedures take place each have a share that is worked out later.