Examining guideline-concordant care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI): the case of hospitalized post-acute and long-term care (PAC/LTC) residents.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have examined differences in care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) according to patient characteristics such as age, gender, or insurance, but little attention has been given to whether admission source is related to guideline adherence.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate: (1) the use of aspirin and reperfusion in the care of post-acute/long-term care (PAC/LTC) patients who are hospitalized for AMI, and (2) 30-day mortality associated with these treatments.


METHODS
Secondary examination of data from the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project (CCP) national baseline data.


METHODS
A total of 4013 U.S. hospitals.


METHODS
Patients hospitalized with a confirmed AMI admitted from PAC/LTC (n = 8151) or community-dwelling (n = 120,032) settings.


METHODS
Early administration of aspirin and reperfusion via either thrombolysis or percutaneous intervention.


RESULTS
PAC/LTC patients were less likely to receive treatment for AMI, even after adjustment for multiple variables associated with treatment choice. Differences persisted with additional econometric adjustment using seemingly-unrelated regression. Multivariable logistic regression results indicated that aspirin was related to improved 30-day survival for both PAC/LTC and community admissions (odds ratio [OR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43-0.58 for PAC/LTC, and OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.54-0.60 for community). Reperfusion was associated with higher ORs for mortality for eligible patients admitted from community setting (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.13-1.35), but ideally-eligible candidates had lower ORs for mortality (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35-0.95 for PAC/LTC, and OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.68-0.81 for community).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients transferred from PAC/LTC settings were less likely to receive early treatment for AMI than other patients. Future trials should inform which guidelines are applicable to PAC/LTC patients.
Radcliff
Tiffany A
TA
Colorado Research to Improve Care Coordination, Veterans Affairs (VA) Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, Denver, Colorado, USA. Tiffany.Radcliff@ucdenver.edu
Levy
Cari R
CR
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001241:Aspirin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D015424:Reperfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D001241:Aspirin