Does cardiac rehabilitation meet minimum standards: an observational study using UK national audit?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does cardiac rehabilitation meet minimum standards: an observational study using UK national audit?

AU - Doherty, Patrick Joseph

AU - Salman, Ahmad

AU - Furze, Gillian

AU - Dalal, Hayes M

AU - Harrison, Alexander Stephen

N1 - © 2016, The Author(s).

PY - 2017/1/10

Y1 - 2017/1/10

N2 - Objective: To assess the extent by whichprogrammes meet national minimum standards for thedelivery of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) as part of theNational Certification Programme for CardiovascularRehabilitation (NCP_CR).Methods: The analysis used UK National Audit ofCardiac Rehabilitation (NACR) data extracted andvalidated for the period 2013–2014 set against sixNCP_CR measures deemed as important for thedelivery of high-quality CR programmes. Eachprogramme that achieved a single minimum standardwas given a score of 1. The range of the scoring formeeting the minimum standards is between 1 and6. The performance of CR programmes wascategorised into three groups: high (score of 5–6),middle (scores of 3–4) and low (scores of 1–2). If aprogramme did not meet any of the six criteria, theywere considered to have failed.Results: Data from 170 CR programmes revealedstatistically significant differences among UK CRprogrammes. The principal findings were that, basedon NCP_CR criteria, 30.6% were assessed as highperformance with 45.9% as midlevel performanceprogrammes, 18.2% were in the lower-level and 5.3%failed to meet any of the minimum criteria.Conclusions: This study shows that high levels ofperformance is achievable in the era of moderncardiology and that many CR programmes are close tomeeting high performance standards. However,substantial variation, below the recommendedminimum standards, exists throughout the UK.National certification should be seen as a positive stepto ensure that patients, irrespective of where they live,are accessing quality services.

AB - Objective: To assess the extent by whichprogrammes meet national minimum standards for thedelivery of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) as part of theNational Certification Programme for CardiovascularRehabilitation (NCP_CR).Methods: The analysis used UK National Audit ofCardiac Rehabilitation (NACR) data extracted andvalidated for the period 2013–2014 set against sixNCP_CR measures deemed as important for thedelivery of high-quality CR programmes. Eachprogramme that achieved a single minimum standardwas given a score of 1. The range of the scoring formeeting the minimum standards is between 1 and6. The performance of CR programmes wascategorised into three groups: high (score of 5–6),middle (scores of 3–4) and low (scores of 1–2). If aprogramme did not meet any of the six criteria, theywere considered to have failed.Results: Data from 170 CR programmes revealedstatistically significant differences among UK CRprogrammes. The principal findings were that, basedon NCP_CR criteria, 30.6% were assessed as highperformance with 45.9% as midlevel performanceprogrammes, 18.2% were in the lower-level and 5.3%failed to meet any of the minimum criteria.Conclusions: This study shows that high levels ofperformance is achievable in the era of moderncardiology and that many CR programmes are close tomeeting high performance standards. However,substantial variation, below the recommendedminimum standards, exists throughout the UK.National certification should be seen as a positive stepto ensure that patients, irrespective of where they live,are accessing quality services.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85009513529&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1136/openhrt-2016-000519

DO - 10.1136/openhrt-2016-000519

M3 - Article

C2 - 28123763

SN - 2053-3624

VL - 4

SP - e000519

JO - Open Heart

JF - Open Heart

IS - 1

M1 - e000519

ER -