Quality of care of hospitalized infective endocarditis patients: Report from a tertiary medical center
OBJECTIVE
There have been no recent studies describing the management and outcomes of patients with infective endocarditis (IE).
PATIENTS AND METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients admitted to a tertiary medical center from 2007 to 2011 with a Duke criteria consistent discharge diagnosis of IE. We examined concordance with guideline recommendations. Outcomes included embolic events, inhospital and 1-year mortality, length of stay (LOS) and cardiac surgery. We used descriptive statistics to describe the cohort and Fisher exact and unpaired t tests to compare native valve endocarditis (NVE) with prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE).
RESULTS
Of 170 patients, definite IE was present in 135 (79.4%) and possible IE in 35 (20.6%); 74.7% had NVE, and 25.3% had PVE. Mean ± standard deviation age was 60.0 ± 17.9 years. Comparing PVE to NVE, patients with PVE were less likely to have embolic events (14.0% vs. 32.3%; P = 0.03), had shorter LOS (median 12.0 days vs. 14.0 days; P = 0.047), but they did not show a statistically significant difference in inhospital mortality (20.9% vs. 12.6%; P = 0.21). Of 170, patients 27.6% (n = 47) underwent valve surgery. Most patients received timely blood cultures and antibiotics. Guideline-recommended consults were underused, with 86.5%, 54.1%, and 47.1% of patients receiving infectious disease, cardiac surgery, and cardiology consultation, respectively. As the number of consultations increased (from 0 to 3), we observed a nonsignificant trend toward reduction in 6-month readmission and 12-month mortality.
CONCLUSION
IE remains a disease with significant morbidity and mortality. There are gaps in the care of IE patients, most notably underuse of specialty consultation. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2017;12:414-420. © 2017 Society of Hospital Medicine
© 2017 Society of Hospital Medicine
CONCLUSION
Our study confirms reports that IE epidemiology has changed significantly in recent years. It also suggests that concordance with guideline recommendations is good for some aspects of care (eg, echocardiogram, blood cultures), but can be improved in other areas, particularly in use of specialty consultation during the hospitalization. Future QI efforts should emphasize the role of the heart valve team or endocarditis team that consists of an internist, ID physician, cardiologist, cardiac surgeon, and nursing. Finally, efforts should be made to develop strategies for community hospitals that do not have access to all of these specialists (eg, early transfer, telehealth).
Disclosure
Nothing to report.
