Profession
New group's goal: 95% of heart patients get recommended care
■ The coalition will push hospitals and physicians to give cardiac patients the right treatment at the right time.
By Kevin B. O’Reilly — Posted July 17, 2006
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Nearly all of the 2 million patients annually hospitalized for heart attacks and heart failure will receive cardiac care aligned with national standards, if a new coalition of 29 government, hospital, physician and research groups is successful.
The Alliance for Cardiac Care Excellence announced in June that it wants, by the end of the year, to see 95% of heart-attack and heart-failure patients receiving a seven-measure core set of care that the National Quality Forum and the Hospital Quality Alliance endorsed. About 85% of eligible patients now receive that care, which includes giving patients aspirin and beta-blockers upon arrival and prescribing those medications at discharge.
By the end of 2007, the new group aims to hit the 95% figure on a 12-measure set of cardiac care protocols that includes other evidence-based interventions, such as delivering a percutaneous coronary intervention to eligible heart-attack patients within 120 minutes of hospital arrival. The coalition counts the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Assn., the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the American College of Cardiology as members.
To achieve the goals, member groups will send common messages about appropriate cardiac care to physicians and hospitals, support public reporting on compliance with the measures and help struggling hospitals implement changes. It also will work to remove any regulatory or payment barriers.
"Working together, we can successfully address the challenges that health systems sometimes face in providing the best patient care possible," AHRQ director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, said in a statement.
