Relationship of a quality measure composite to clinical outcomes for patients with heart failure

Background: To determine whether compliance with heart failure performance measures (HFPMs) is associated with short-term outcome benefit. Methods: In a cohort study, 194 patients satisfying all the HFPMs for which they were eligible were compared with 206 controls. Over 6 months, time to death and first all-cause readmission data were collected. Data were adjusted for differences in comorbidities, medications, and demographics in a multivariate model. Results: There was no difference in 6-month mortality between the 2 groups. Adjusted time to death or all-cause hospitalization (hazard ratio [HR], 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58-0.97; P = .03) and all-cause hospitalization (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.57-0.97; P = .03) were shorter for the study group compared with control, whereas there was no difference in time to death (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.66-1.11; P = .24). Conclusions: Adherence to a composite of HFPM appears to be related to a reduction in all-cause read-missions for patients with HF but not short-term mortality.