title: A two-round Delphi study examining consensus of recommended clinical practices for patients with ventricular assist devices as destination therapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the current clinical practices of Medicare-certified facilities offering ventricular assist devices as destination therapy and to attain a consensus of recommended clinical practices across the United States for the management of adults with ventricular assist devices as destination therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty ventricular assist device coordinators from Medicare-certified centers were invited to participate in an online, 2-round Delphi survey. The surveys asked whether recommended practices are current practices and whether respondents always/agreed or never/disagreed with performing the recommended practice guidelines. Consensus was defined as 75% agreement. The clinical areas of focus were patient selection, preoperative preparation, postoperative care, infection control, nutrition, and patient discharge preparation. Practices were extracted from the advanced practice guidelines for HeartMate destination therapy and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation's 2006 guidelines for the care of heart transplant candidates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Representing 21 states across the country, the first-round survey had a response rate of 57% (n = 34). The second-round survey had a response rate of 74% (n = 17), representing 28% of the 60 centers. Consensus was obtained for 122 practices. The dimension of patient selection-diagnostic tests and screening had the highest level of consensus (16%, n = 20), and the dimension of postoperative care-intermediate/intensive care unit dimension had the lowest level of consensus (3.3%, n = 4).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Survey results identify a consensus of practices for the specific group of ventricular assist device coordinators who responded, but that consensus cannot be generalized to all ventricular assist device facilities. These results can, however, provide a foundation for further research leading to the development of standard-of-care practices for patients with ventricular assist devices as destination therapy.
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Nursing, Newark, New Jersey, USA. jvc93@aol.com
authors.forename: JoAnne V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Chichetti
mesh_terms: D032921:Consensus; D003697:Delphi Technique; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States