Telehealth intervention delivered cardiac rehabilitation does not have significantly inferior outcomes compared to center-based supervised program in low to moderate risk CAD patients. Telehealth intervention offers an alternative deliver model of CR for individuals less able to access center-based cardiac rehabilitation. Choices should reflect preferences, anticipation, risk profile, funding, and accessibility to health service.
Background—
Substantial evidence-practice gaps exist in the management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) in China. Clinical pathways are tools for improving ACS quality of care but have not been rigorously evaluated.
Methods and Results—
Between October 2007 and August 2010, a quality improvement program was conducted in 75 hospitals throughout China with mixed methods evaluation in a cluster randomized, controlled trial. Eligible hospitals were level 2 or level 3 centers routinely admitting >100 patients with ACS per year. Hospitals were assigned immediate implementation of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guideline based clinical pathways or commencement of the intervention 12 months later. Outcomes were several key performance indicators reflecting the management of ACS. The key performance indicators were measured 12 months after commencement in intervention hospitals and compared with baseline data in control hospitals, using data collected from 50 consecutive patients in each hospital. Pathway implementation was associated with an increased proportion of patients discharged on appropriate medical therapy, with nonsignificant improvements or absence of effects on other key performance indicators.
Conclusions—
Among hospitals in China, the use of a clinical pathway for the treatment of ACS compared with usual care improved secondary prevention treatments, but effectiveness was otherwise limited. An accompanying process evaluation identified several health system barriers to more successful implementation.
Clinical Trial Registration—
URL:
http://www.anzctr.org.au/default.aspx
. Unique identifier: ACTRN12609000491268.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.