In addition, the hospitals in the highest quartile had higher rates of adherence than those in the lowest quartile to guideline-directed heart failure therapies, including evidence-based beta-blocker use, ACE inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker use, postdischarge heart failure follow-up, implantable cardioverter defibrillator placement prior to discharge, and cardiac resynchronization therapy prior to discharge.The study was limited by a possible lack of generalizability to hospitals not participating in the GWTG program, Dr. Pandey said. In addition, “we cannot establish causation between hospital performance based on 30-day RSMR and long-term survival.”
However, the long-term survival advantage for heart failure patients treated at hospitals with the highest measures of short-term performance suggests that the 30-day RSMR could be used as an incentive for quality care and the improvement of long-term outcomes, he said.
Dr. Pandey had no financial conflicts to disclose. The Get With the Guidelines–Heart Failure program is supported by the American Heart Association, and has been previously funded by Medtronic, GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho-McNeil, and the AHA Pharmaceutical Roundtable. The findings were published simultaneously in JAMA Cardiology (2018 Mar 12. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2018.0579).
SOURCE: Pandy A. ACC 2018.