Journal article
Quality of Care for Decompensated Heart Failure : Comparable Performance between Academic Hospitalists and Non-hospitalists
Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM, Vol.23(9), pp.1399-1406
2008
DOI: 10.1007/s11606-008-0680-3
PMCID: PMC2517998
PMID: 18592321
Abstract
Background
Hospitalists improve efficiency, but little information exists regarding whether they impact quality of care.
Objective
To determine hospitalists’ effect on the quality of acute congestive heart failure care.
Design and Participants
Using data from the Multicenter Hospitalist Study, we retrospectively evaluated quality of care in patients admitted with congestive heart failure who were assigned to hospitalists (n = 120) or non-hospitalists (n = 252) among six academic hospitals.
Measurements
Quality measures included the percentage of patients who had ejection fraction (EF) measurement, received appropriate medications [i.e., angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) or beta-blockers] at discharge, measures of care coordination (e.g., follow-up within 30 days), testing for cardiac ischemia (e.g., cardiac catheterization), as well as hospital length of stay, cost, and combined 30-day readmissions and mortality.
Results
Compared to non-hospitalist physicians, hospitalists’ patients had similar rates of EF measurement (85.3% vs. 87.5%; P = 0.57), ACE-I (91.5% vs. 88.0%; P = 0.52), or beta-blocker (46.9% vs. 42.1%; P = 0.57) prescriptions. Multivariable adjustment did not change these findings. Hospitalists’ patients had higher odds of 30-day follow-up (adjusted OR = 1.83, 95% CI, 1.44 – 2.93). There were no significant differences between the groups’ frequency of cardiac testing, length of stay, costs, or risk for readmission or death by 30-days.
Conclusion
Academic hospitalists and non-hospitalists provide similar quality of care for heart failure patients, although hospitalists are paying more attention to longitudinal care. Future efforts to improve quality of care in decompensated heart failure may require attention towards system-level factors.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Quality of Care for Decompensated Heart Failure : Comparable Performance between Academic Hospitalists and Non-hospitalists
- Creators
- Eduard E VASILEVSKIS - Division of Hospital Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United StatesDavid MELTZER - University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesJeffrey SCHNIPPER - Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United StatesPeter KABOLI - The Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP) at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, Iowa City, IA, United StatesTosha WETTERNECK - School of Medicine and Public Health and the Center for Quality, Improvement and Productivity, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United StatesDavid GONZALES - Department of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United StatesVineet ARORA - University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesJames ZHANG - University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesAndrew D AUERBACH - Division of Hospital Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM, Vol.23(9), pp.1399-1406
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11606-008-0680-3
- PMID
- 18592321
- PMCID
- PMC2517998
- NLM abbreviation
- J Gen Intern Med
- ISSN
- 0884-8734
- eISSN
- 1525-1497
- Publisher
- Springer
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2008
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984094736102771
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