Examining guideline-concordant care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI): the case of hospitalized post-acute and long-term care (PAC/LTC) residents.

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have examined differences in care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) according to patient characteristics such as age, gender, or insurance, but little attention has been given to whether admission source is related to guideline adherence.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate: (1) the use of aspirin and reperfusion in the care of post-acute/long-term care (PAC/LTC) patients who are hospitalized for AMI, and (2) 30-day mortality associated with these treatments.

DESIGN

Secondary examination of data from the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project (CCP) national baseline data.

SETTING

A total of 4013 U.S. hospitals.

SUBJECTS: Patients hospitalized with a confirmed AMI admitted from PAC/LTC (n = 8151) or community-dwelling (n = 120,032) settings.

MEASUREMENTS: Early administration of aspirin and reperfusion via either thrombolysis or percutaneous intervention.

RESULTS

PAC/LTC patients were less likely to receive treatment for AMI, even after adjustment for multiple variables associated with treatment choice. Differences persisted with additional econometric adjustment using seemingly-unrelated regression. Multivariable logistic regression results indicated that aspirin was related to improved 30-day survival for both PAC/LTC and community admissions (odds ratio [OR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43-0.58 for PAC/LTC, and OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.54-0.60 for community). Reperfusion was associated with higher ORs for mortality for eligible patients admitted from community setting (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.13-1.35), but ideally-eligible candidates had lower ORs for mortality (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.35-0.95 for PAC/LTC, and OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.68-0.81 for community).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients transferred from PAC/LTC settings were less likely to receive early treatment for AMI than other patients. Future trials should inform which guidelines are applicable to PAC/LTC patients.