Small hospitals are less likely to provide recommended heart failure care compared with larger hospitals, according to a study in the American Heart Journal.
Researchers the association between characteristics of hospitals and heart failure patients and four measures of quality of inpatient heart failure care used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and The Joint Commission:
• Assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction.
• Use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers.
• Discharge instructions.
• Smoking cessation counseling.
They found small hospitals — those with fewer than 200 beds — were less likely to provide each of these measures compared with larger hospitals. In addition, older patients and those with abnormal renal failure were less likely to receive each care measure except for discharge instructions.
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Researchers the association between characteristics of hospitals and heart failure patients and four measures of quality of inpatient heart failure care used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and The Joint Commission:
• Assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction.
• Use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers.
• Discharge instructions.
• Smoking cessation counseling.
They found small hospitals — those with fewer than 200 beds — were less likely to provide each of these measures compared with larger hospitals. In addition, older patients and those with abnormal renal failure were less likely to receive each care measure except for discharge instructions.
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