CHD care is resource-intensive. Unwarranted variation in care may increase cost and result in poorer health outcomes. We hypothesise that process variation exists within the pre-operative evaluation and planning process for children undergoing repair of atrial septal defect or ventricular septal defect and that substantial variation occurs in a small number of care points.

From interviews with staff of an integrated congenital heart centre, an initial process map was constructed. A retrospective chart review of patients with isolated surgical atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect repair from 7/1/2018 through 11/1/2020 informed revisions of the process map. The map was assessed for points of consistency and variability.

Thirty-two surgical atrial septal defect/ventricular septal defect repair patients were identified. Ten (31%) were reviewed by interventional cardiology before surgical review. Of these, 6(60%) had a failed catheter-based closure and 4 (40%) were deemed inappropriate for catheter-based closure. Thirty (94%) were reviewed in case conference, all attended surgical clinic, and none were admitted prior to surgery. The process map from interviews alone identified surgery rescheduling as a point of major variability; however, chart review revealed this was not as prominent a source of variability as pre-operative interventional cardiology review.

Significant variation in the pre-operative evaluation and planning process for surgical atrial septal defect/ventricular septal defect patients was identified. If such process variation is widespread through CHD care, it may contribute to variations in outcome and cost previously documented within CHD surgery. Future research will focus on determining whether the variation is warranted or unwarranted, associated health outcomes and cost variation attributed to these variations in care processes.