Quality and Operational Metrics in Heart Failure

Quality is a comparative construct that, through the lens of presumed best practice, seeks to identify “optimal” heart failure care and minimize variance from it. While an understanding of the causal relationship between quality and outcomes is evolving, benchmarking of care to defined performance measures is commonplace. Consequently, knowledge of relevant metrics in heart failure and respective guidelines in which they are outlined is critical for both providers and administrators. Dissemination of such information and achievement of a culture of quality can be facilitated by accreditation—an unbiased approach to assessment of institutional performance which serves to recognize those centers which conform to a predefined (higher) standard of care. Ultimately, the goal of this and other quality initiatives is a systematic improvement in the way heart failure care is delivered across the stakeholder spectrum.