1. Discharge instructions
Not all patients with heart failure receive care in accordance with guidelines
Wide variations in hospital performance in acute heart failure have been reported
Use of checklists, protocols and care pathways for managing patients with acute heart failure can reduce deaths
10th percentile
25th percentile
100
50th percentile
75th percentile
90th percentile 80 60
Compliance (%)
Notes
Unfortunately, not all patients with heart failure receive good care, even according to current guidelines. This slide shows variation in US hospitals on four simple measures of the quality of care: whether discharge instructions were issued, whether the patient received counselling to stop smoking, whether medication was prescribed at discharge, and whether the function of the left ventricle (LV) of the heart was assessed. Even within one country, there are large disparities in the quality of care. It also differs greatly from one country to another. This needs to be improved.
Reference
Fonarow GC, Yancy CW, Heywood JT. Adherence to heart failure quality-of-care indicators in US hospitals: analysis of the ADHERE Registry. Arch Intern Med 2005;165:1469–77. 40 20
Discharge instructions
Smoking counselling
Medication at
discharge
LV function assessed