Care for Outpatients with Heart Failure May Be Subpar

There's room for improvement in guideline-recommended care for heart failure in a registry-based study.

Practice guidelines have long provided strong evidence-based recommendations for treating heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Use of these treatments in hospitalized cohorts was once suboptimal but has improved substantially since the advent of quality-measurement programs like those led by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the late 1990s. To obtain data on the quality of HFrEF care in ambulatory settings, researchers relied on the manufacturer-sponsored CHAMP-HF registry, which enrolled 3518 people with HFrEF (mean age, 66; 29% women; mean left ventricular EF, 29%) in 150 U.S. primary care and cardiology ambulatory practices.

Patients with limited estimated life expectancy or plans for advanced support ther…

Reviewing Author

Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, MSPH, FACC, FAHA

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardBristol Myers Squibb; CPC Clinical Research

Grant/Research SupportNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; American College of Cardiology Self-Assessment Program (SAP)

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesAmerican College of Cardiology (Chair, Innovations Committee)