Mariëtte M. van Engen-Verheul

Cardiac rehabilitation and survival in a large representative community cohort of Dutch patients.

AIMS To assess the effects of multi-disciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on survival in the full population of patients with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and patients that underwent coronary revascularization and/or heart valve surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS Population-based cohort study in the Netherlands using insurance claims database covering ∼22% of the Dutch population (3.3 million persons). All patients with an ACS with or without ST elevation, and patients who underwent coronary revascularization and/or valve surgery in the period 2007-10 were included. Patients were categorized as having received CR when an insurance claim for CR was made within the first 180 days after the cardiac event or revascularization. The primary outcome was survival time from the inclusion date, limited to a total follow-up period of 4 years, with a minimum of 180 days. Propensity score weighting was used to control for confounding by indication. Among 35 919 patients with an ACS and/or coronary revascularization or valve surgery, 11 014 (30.7%) received CR. After propensity score weighting, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) associated with receiving CR was 0.65 (95% CI 0.56-0.77). The largest benefit was observed for patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and/or valve surgery (HR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.74). CONCLUSION In a large and representative community cohort of Dutch patients with an ACS and/or intervention, CR was associated with a substantial survival benefit up to 4 years. This survival benefit was present regardless of age, type of diagnosis, and type of intervention.

Cardiac rehabilitation uptake and its determinants in the Netherlands.

Aims: Despite its documented efficacy, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is still not well implemented in current clinical practice. The aims of the present study were to assess CR uptake rates in the Netherlands, and to identify factors that determine uptake. Methods: The cohort consisted of persons insured with Achmea Zorg en Gezondheid. Based on insurance claims, we assessed CR uptake rates in 2007 among patients with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or valvular surgery, and patients with stable angina pectoris (AP) or chronic heart failure (CHF). In addition, we evaluated the relation between CR uptake and demographic, disease-related, and geographic factors for patients with an ACS and/or intervention. Results: The CR uptake rate in the entire cohort (n = 35,752) was 11.7%. The uptake rate among patients with an ACS and/or intervention (n = 12,201) was 28.5%, as opposed to 3.0% among patients with CHF or stable AP (n = 23,551). The highest CR uptake rate was observed in patients who underwent cardiac surgery (58.7%). Factors associated with lower CR uptake were female gender, older age, elective PCI (as compared to acute PCI), unstable AP (as compared to myocardial infarction), larger distance to the nearest provider of CR, and comorbidity. Conclusion: A minority of Dutch patients eligible for CR received CR. Future implementation strategies should focus on females, elderly patients, patients with unstable AP and/or after elective PCI, patients with long travelling distances to the nearest CR provider, and patients with comorbidities.

Evaluating the effect of a web-based quality improvement system with feedback and outreach visits on guideline concordance in the field of cardiac rehabilitation: rationale and study protocol.

BackgroundImplementation of clinical practice guidelines into daily care is hampered by a variety of barriers related to professional knowledge and collaboration in teams and organizations. To improve guideline concordance by changing the clinical decision-making behavior of professionals, computerized decision support (CDS) has been shown to be one of the most effective instruments. However, to address barriers at the organizational level, additional interventions are needed. Continuous monitoring and systematic improvement of quality are increasingly used to achieve change at this level in complex health care systems. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of a web-based quality improvement (QI) system with indicator-based performance feedback and educational outreach visits to overcome organizational barriers for guideline concordance in multidisciplinary teams in the field of cardiac rehabilitation (CR).MethodsA multicenter cluster-randomized trial with a balanced incomplete block design will be conducted in 18 Dutch CR clinics using an electronic patient record with CDS at the point of care. The intervention consists of (i) periodic performance feedback on quality indicators for CR and (ii) educational outreach visits to support local multidisciplinary QI teams focussing on systematically improving the care they provide. The intervention is supported by a web-based system which provides an overview of the feedback and facilitates development and monitoring of local QI plans. The primary outcome will be concordance to national CR guidelines with respect to the CR needs assessment and therapy indication procedure. Secondary outcomes are changes in performance of CR clinics as measured by structure, process and outcome indicators, and changes in practice variation on these indicators. We will also conduct a qualitative process evaluation (concept-mapping methodology) to assess experiences from participating CR clinics and to gain insight into factors which influence the implementation of the intervention.DiscussionTo our knowledge, this will be the first study to evaluate the effect of providing performance feedback with a web-based system that incorporates underlying QI concepts. The results may contribute to improving CR in the Netherlands, increasing knowledge on facilitators of guideline implementation in multidisciplinary health care teams and identifying success factors of multifaceted feedback interventions.Trial registrationNTR3251.

Revision of the Dutch clinical algorithm for assessing patient needs in cardiac rehabilitation based on identified implementation problems

Background: Despite all available evidence of its effectiveness, cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention (CRSP) is still insufficiently implemented in current clinical practice. Based on an analysis of implementation problems, recently the Dutch clinical algorithm for the assessment of patient’s CRSP needs was revised. The purpose of this paper is to describe the revision process and its results to improve CRSP guideline implementation. Methods: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines manual for conducting guideline revisions was followed. Information on the use of the algorithm in practice was collected from electronic medical records and by conducting semi-structured interviews. Next, an expert advisory group identified the problems for use in daily practice and defined the scope for the revision. A multidisciplinary guideline development group subsequently wrote the revised algorithm. Results: A large variation in assessed patient needs was observed between CRSP clinics. Assessment based on clinical judgement was found to be a source of practice variation and is therefore avoided in the revised algorithm. It was decided to add assessment instruments for anxiety and depression, cardiovascular risk factors, stress, attitude of partner and lifestyle parameters. Conclusion: The Dutch clinical algorithm for assessing patient needs for CRSP was revised using a combination of patient data from routine practice, knowledge from academic experts and experience from field experts. The revised algorithm is a practical tool consisting of assessment instruments to improve CRSP guideline adherence in the Netherlands. This algorithm may also be useful for other Western countries to organize their CRSP needs assessment procedure.

What is needed to implement a web-based audit and feedback intervention with outreach visits to improve care quality: A concept mapping study among cardiac rehabilitation teams

INTRODUCTION Evidence on successful quality improvement (QI) in health care requires quantitative information from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on the effectiveness of QI interventions, but also qualitative information from professionals to understand factors influencing QI implementation. OBJECTIVE Using a structured qualitative approach, concept mapping, this study determines factors identified by cardiac rehabilitation (CR) teams on what is needed to successfully implement a web-based audit and feedback (A&F) intervention with outreach visits to improve the quality of CR care. METHODS Participants included 49 CR professionals from 18 Dutch CR centres who had worked with the A&F system during a RCT. In three focus group sessions participants formulated statements on factors needed to implement QI successfully. Subsequently, participants rated all statements for importance and feasibility and grouped them thematically. Multi dimensional scaling was used to produce a final concept map. RESULTS Forty-two unique statements were formulated and grouped into five thematic clusters in the concept map. The cluster with the highest importance was QI team commitment, followed by organisational readiness, presence of an adequate A&F system, access to an external quality assessor, and future use and functionalities of the A&F system. CONCLUSION Concept mapping appeared efficient and useful to understand contextual factors influencing QI implementation as perceived by healthcare teams. While presence of a web-based A&F system and external quality assessor were seen as instrumental for gaining insight into performance and formulating QI actions, QI team commitment and organisational readiness were perceived as essential to actually implement and carry out these actions. These two sociotechnical factors should be taken into account when implementing and evaluating the success of QI implementations in future research.

CARDSS: development and evaluation of a guideline based decision support system for cardiac rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary therapy aimed at recovery and secondary prevention after hospitalization for cardiac incidents (such as myocardial infarctions) and cardiac interventions (such as heart surgery). To stimulate implementation of the national guidelines, an electronic patient record system with computerised decision support functionalities called CARDSS (cardiac rehabilitation decision support system) was developed, and made available to Dutch rehabilitation clinics. The system was quantitatively evaluated in a cluster randomised trial at 31 clinics, and qualitatively by interviewing 29 users of the system. Computerised decision support was found to improve guideline concordance by increasing professional knowledge of preferred practice, by reducing inertia to previous practice, and by reducing guideline complexity. It was not effective when organizational or procedural changes were required that users considered to be beyond their responsibilities.

Patient-Reported Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT PROGRAM SATISFACTION? A REVIEW.

PURPOSE: Patient satisfaction has become an important indicator of quality and may be related to greater adherence to cardiac rehabilitation (CR). The objectives of this narrative review were to investigate (1) patient satisfaction with CR and its relationship to adherence or health outcomes, and (2) assessment tools applicable to CR. METHODS: A literature search was conducted on key resource databases, including MEDLINE, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, and Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Instruments. A focused Internet and gray literature search was also conducted. RESULTS OF DATA SYNTHESIS: Eight studies were included. Patient satisfaction was high overall, especially related to education received. In 4 studies, patient satisfaction with treatment was compared in patients who attended CR with those who did not. In 2 of these studies where items were investigator generated, significant differences favoring CR were found. In the 2 studies where the treatment satisfaction subscale of the Seattle Angina Questionnaire was administered, no differences were observed. Only 1 study was identified, which examined the relationship of patient satisfaction with any outcome, and revealed that greater satisfaction was related to greater program adherence. There was a dearth of valid assessment tools. CONCLUSIONS: Despite recommendations in CR association guidelines to consider patient satisfaction, there is an absence of research assessing it. The studies that have assessed it administered tools of questionable psychometric rigor. It remains to be determined whether patient satisfaction is related to any meaningful outcomes.