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TUESDAY, Feb. 6, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Hospital adherence to heart failure guidelines might be the best quality measure, according to a study published online Jan. 29 in Circulation<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Dharam J. Kumbhani, M.D., from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues evaluated the relationship between admission volume, process-of-care metrics, and short- and long-term outcomes in 125,595 patients admitted with acute heart failure and participating in the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure registry at 342 hospitals.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that patients admitted to high-volume hospitals had a higher burden of comorbidities. After multivariable modeling, lower-volume hospitals were significantly less likely to be adherent to heart failure process measures versus higher-volume hospitals. However, higher hospital volume was not associated with a difference in in-hospital mortality, 30-day mortality, or 30-day readmissions. For longer-term outcomes, there was a weak association of higher volumes with lower six-month mortality (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 0.99; P = 0.001) and lower six-month all-cause readmissions (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1; P = 0.025).<\/p>\n
“Hospital profiling should focus on participation in systems of care, adherence to process metrics, and risk-standardized outcomes rather than on hospital volume itself,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including companies that have provided funding for the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program.<\/p>\n
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