Updated performance measures released on cardiac rehab referral

The American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF), the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recently issued updated performance measures on referral to cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Cardiac rehab has been shown to improve outcomes after cardiac events, but only one in five patients receive it, the organizations said in a press release. The updated measures are meant to help hospitals and clinicians improve tracking referral rates, use tools to improve enrollment, and assess and improve care quality, the release said.

Changes from the organizations' 2007 measures for referral from an outpatient setting include the following:"Patient refusal" should not be considered a reason for not providing a cardiac rehab referral.Appropriate medical exclusions for referral were modified to stress that cardiac rehab programs are able to adapt to patients' individual medical needs and that only patients with life-threatening medical conditions should be presumed incapable of participating."Lack of [cardiac rehab] programs near a patient's home" was specifically defined as no cardiac rehab program within 60 minutes of a patient's home.Rehab programs' standards of practice require that the referring clinician receive care coordination communications covering such topics as treatment changes, adverse responses to treatment or new nonemergent conditions that he or she will need to address. The referring clinician should also receive a progress report after the program is completed.

The updated measures were published Aug. 30 by Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention.