Assessment of quality indicators for acute myocardial infarction management in 28 countries and use of composite quality indicators for benchmarking.

BACKGROUND

The European Society of Cardiology established a set of quality indicators for the management of acute myocardial infarction. Our aim was to evaluate their degree of attainment, prognostic value and potential use for centre benchmarking in a large international cohort.

METHODS

Quality indicators were extracted from the long-tErm follow-uP of antithrombotic management patterns In acute CORonary syndrome patients (EPICOR) (555 hospitals, 20 countries in Europe and Latin America, 2010-2011) and EPICOR Asia (218 hospitals, eight countries, 2011-2012) registries, including non-ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (=6558) and ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (=11,559) hospital survivors. The association between implementation rates for each quality indicator and two-year adjusted mortality was evaluated using adjusted Cox models. Composite quality indicators were categorized for benchmarking assessment at different levels.

RESULTS

The degree of attainment of the 17 evaluated quality indicators ranged from 13% to 100%. Attainment of most individual quality indicators was associated with two-year survival. A higher compliance with composite quality indicators was associated with lower mortality at centre-, country- and region-level. Moreover, the higher the risk for two-year mortality, the lower the compliance with composite quality indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

When EPICOR and EPICOR Asia were conducted, the European Society of Cardiology quality indicators would have been attained to a limited extent, suggesting wide room for improvement in the management of acute myocardial infarction patients. After adjustment for confounding, most quality indicators were associated with reduced two-year mortality and their prognostic value should receive further attention. The two composite quality indicators can be used as a tool for benchmarking either at centre-, country- or world region-level.