Award-winning posters presented at ACC Quality Summit 2024 explored improving identification of high-risk NSTEMI patients, enhancing post PCI creatinine compliance, automating registry data collection to improve data quality and process efficiency, strategies to improve data accuracy and compliance, and more.

First Place Poster: Revolutionizing High-Risk NSTEMI Care: The Power of Early Invasive Strategies
Rachael Price, BSN, RN, CCRN, and the team at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, TX, set out to decrease door-to-angiography times for high-risk NSTEMI patients by improving their facility’s identification and prioritization of these patients. By amending pre-operative notes to include risk stratification scores and adjusting catheterization laboratory scheduling procedures, utilization of the risk stratification tool increased from 16.67% in the third quarter of 2022 to 55.67% in the fourth quarter of 2022. At the project’s conclusion, the utilization rate was up to 75% – attributable to a well-defined protocol, effective team collaboration, timely education and training sessions, and consistent data monitoring and feedback mechanisms.

Second Place Poster: Improving Compliance With Post PCI Creatinine
While pursuing ACC’s Cardiac Cath Lab Accreditation, Alyssa Stolarik, BSN, RN, CNOR, from Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, NJ, saw that the site’s quarterly post PCI creatinine compliance rates were declining. In response, the team established a contrast-induced nephropathy prevention plan and presented performance data on this metric quarterly to build awareness among the entire care team. Following this intervention, post PCI creatinine compliance increased to 100% and overall acute kidney injury rates decreased.

Third Place Poster: Cardiac Cath Lab Optimization: Automated Solutions For CAG and PCI Data Management
By automating CathPCI Registry data collection for post-coronary angiogram (CAG) and PCI procedures with in-house digital CathPCI Registry software integrated with the LIVE Patient Management System, Saba Aijaz, MD, FCPS, was able to improve data quality and increase efficiency at Tabba Heart Institute in Karachi, Pakistan. Aijaz noted a 95% improvement in data accuracy, 40% increase in process efficiency, 100% reduction in duplicate forms and achievement of full data capture since implementation of the software in the first quarter of 2024. The system has also enabled real-time monitoring for enhanced CAG and PCI compliance tracking.

People’s Choice Poster: Enhancing Data Quality in Cardiac Cath Labs: A Strategic Approach
Kimberly Perdue, RT(R), MBA, and Danielle Neely, RT(R), aimed to enhance data accuracy and compliance at Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley, WV. They found that the Chest Pain – MI Registry lacked crucial information due to limitations in access to multiple electronic medical record (EMR) systems. By improving access to essential EMR systems, providing targeted educational training, transitioning quality improvement oversight to the cardiac catheterization laboratory and hiring a dedicated data management professional to spearhead quality efforts, the team fostered significant improvement in data integrity across several registry metrics including PCI radiation dose documented, composite PCI guideline discharge meds and cardiac rehabilitation referral.

Additional honorable mentions from the Summit include:

• Improving Follow-Up in LAAO Patients
  Elizabeth M. Johnston, RN, BSN, from Billings Clinic in Billings, MT
• A Single-Center Quality Improvement Initiative on GDMT Implementation Among Primary Prevention CRT-D Patients
  Sadia Wasik, MBBS, from Peter Munk Cardiac Center in Toronto, Ontario
• Time Flies: A Focused Effort to Reduce Door-In-Door-Out and Door-to-Door-to-Reperfusion Times For STEMI Patients Presenting at Critical Access Hospitals
  Megan S, BSN, RN, PCCN, SCRN, from Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, OR

Keywords: National Cardiovascular Data Registries, ACC Accreditation