Background: Assessing the quality of care is the first step for improving the management of patients with acute heart failure (AHF). The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recently defined a set of quality indicators (QIs) of care for AHF. Aim: To assess the trend over time of quality of care of AHF patients admitted to the Cardiology ward of our first level hospital using the ESC QIs. Methods: QiC project is a prospective quality improvement study in real-world practice on all patients admitted to our ward for an AHF from 1.5.2023 to 31.10.25 with six-monthly audit activities. Case record forms were filled in by ward doctors during patient’s admission. The ESC QIs set includes 11 main and 3 secondary QIs on structural framework, patient assessment, initial treatment, and health-related quality of life. For each QI, the percentage of attainment in the first and second semester of the study was evaluated and compared by a chi-square test. Results: A total of 156 hospital admissions for AHF occurred in the first year (four patients were admitted twice). One patient denied consent, four died during hospitalization, and 17 had to be urgently transferred to another hospital. The percentages of attainment for each QI in the 134 admissions for SCC ended with discharge to home or to a rehabilitation centre (63 in the first semester and 71 in the second semester) are reported in the Figure (first semester data in dark green and second semester data in light green; main QIs in bold). Improvements in the second semester can be observed for the majority of QIs, even though never statistically significant. Conclusions: The quality of care for acute heart failure can be measured in the patients admitted to our Cardiology Department using the ESC set of quality indicators. First semester data show that the majority of quality indicators are met in our patients even if a large room for improvement is present. In the second semester, after the first audit activities, a trend for improvement of many quality indicators can be observed.
Associazione Nazionale Medici Cardiologi Ospedalieri
