Achievement and quality measure attainment in patients hospitalized with atrial fibrillation: Results from The Get With The Guidelines - Atrial Fibrillation (GWTG-AFIB) registry

Background The Get With The Guidelines - Atrial Fibrillation (GWTG-AFIB) Registry uses achievement and quality measures to improve the care of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to evaluate overall and site-level variation in attainment of these measures among sites participating in the GWTG-AFIB Registry. Methods From the GWTG-AFIB registry, we included patients with AF admitted between 1/3/2013 and 6/30/2019. We described patient-level attainment and variation in attainment across sites of 6 achievement measures with 1) defect-free scores (percent of patients with all eligible measures attained), and 2) composite opportunity scores (percent of all eligible patient measures attained). We also described attainment of 11 quality measures at the patient-level. Results Among 80,951 patients hospitalized for AF (age 70 +/- 13 years, 47.0% female; CHA(2)DS(2)-VASc 3.6 +/- 1.8) at 132 sites. Site-level defect-free scores ranged from 4.7% to 85.8% (25th, 50th, 75th percentile: 32.7%, 52.1%, 64.4%). Composite opportunity scores ranged from 39.4% to 97.5% (25th, 50th, 75th, 68.1%, 80.3%, 87.1%). Attainment was notably low for the following quality measures: 1) aldosterone antagonist prescription when ejection fraction <= 35% (29% of those eligible); and 2) avoidance of antiplatelet therapy with OAC in patients without coronary/peripheral artery disease (81% of those eligible). Conclusions : Despite high overall attainment of care measures across GWTG-AFIB registry sites, large site variation was present with meaningful opportunities to improve AF care beyond OAC prescription, including but not limited to prescription of aldosterone antagonists in those with AF and systolic dysfunction and avoidance of non-indicated adjunctive antiplatelet therapy.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the disparities in achieving care measures among hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines - Atrial Fibrillation (GWTG-AFIB) Registry. Despite high overall attainment, there were significant variations among institutions, highlighting the need for improvements in certain aspects of atrial fibrillation care.