Changes in Hospital Performance and Transition-Care Measures 1-Year After Initiation of the Patient Navigator Program

Title

Changes in Hospital Performance and Transition-Care Measures 1-Year After Initiation of the Patient Navigator Program

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Publication Date

3-2018

Keywords

cards

Disciplines

Cardiology

Description

Background

Despite high rates of early readmission in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF), little data exists regarding the impact of best practices on hospital-based transition-care measures. This project sought to evaluate early changes in AMI and HF program performance after implementing the American College of Cardiology Patient Navigator Program—a transition-care improvement initiative at 35 acute care hospitals.

Methods

Baseline and 1-year post intervention data from 3860 patients with AMI or HF were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test for 17 care measures related to hospital processes (8), medication reconciliation (3), education delivery/documentation (2), HF patient identification prior to discharge (1), scheduling a follow-up appointment within seven days (1), and associated 30-day unadjusted rates of AMI and HF readmission (2).

Results

Among Patient Navigator hospitals, 68.6% were urban and 77.1% were teaching. Baseline and 1-year assessments demonstrated wide variability in aherence for many measures. Compared with baseline, median (25th, 75th percentiles) performance improved for use of an evidence-based beta-blocker among patients with HF, from 91.6% (86.2%, 95.0%) to 93.8% (88.2%, 98.6%), p= 0.028; medication reconciliation at admission, discharge and both admission and discharge (all p≤ 0.05); scheduling of HF follow-up appointments (p= 0.004) and self-care education (p= 0.005). Post-AMI in-hospital mortality improved from 4.0% (4.0%, 5.0%) to 3.7% (3.3%, 4.3%), p= 0.015 and 30-day unadjusted HF readmission was non-significantly lower by 1.9%; from 19.0% (15.2%, 21.0%) to 17.1% (14.1%, 19.1%), (p= 0.09).

Conclusion

Transition-care interventions were associated with significant improvement in 6 processes of care and 1 outcome performance measure for patients with AMI or HF.

Clinical Institute

Cardiovascular (Heart)

Department

Cardiology

Department

Center for Cardiovascular Analytics, Research + Data Science (CARDS)

Conference / Event Name

American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session & Expo

Location

Orlando, FL

Book / Chapter Details

Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Volume 71, Issue 11 Supplement, March 2018

DOI

DOI: 10.1016/S0735-1097(18)31196-3

Changes in Hospital Performance and Transition-Care Measures 1-Year After Initiation of the Patient Navigator Program

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