Top Things to Know: Hospital Certification for Optimizing Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Quality of Care and Outcomes

1. There are approximately 5,800 registered hospitals in the United States.¹
2. Each year in this country there are an estimated 6.2 million cardiovascular hospitalizations, 730,000 stroke hospitalizations, and 7.2 million cardiac and vascular procedures performed.²
3. The quality of cardiovascular and stroke care in hospitals can be variable and there are frequently missed opportunities to implement evidence-based care.
4. Hospital accreditation, recognition, and certification programs are defined and highlighted.
5. Many of these programs currently exist, but do not comprehensively address cardiovascular disease and stroke care.
6. The current evidence base suggests mixed results for correlation of these programs to hospital performance, including quality of care and outcomes.
7. This paper considers perceptions of key leaders at randomly selected U.S. hospitals for further development of these programs.
8. Future strategies, while allowing flexibility as technology and methodology advances, are discussed.
9. Development of a truly meaningful program to facilitate improvements in, and recognition for, cardiovascular disease and stroke quality of care and outcomes in US hospitals is proposed.
10. The AHA/ASA as a trusted, objective, patient-centered national organization should explore hospital certification programs.

¹Facts on U.S. Hospitals. American Hospital Association. Accessed October 19, 2010. http://www.aha.org/aha/resourcecenter/Statistics-and-Studies/Fast_Facts_Nov_11_2009.pdf

²Lloyd-Jones D, et al; on behalf of the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2010 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2010;121:e46–e215.