Announcing the Release of the First Cardiac Rehabilitation Performance Measures
to Help Bridge Gaps in the Delivery of Secondary Prevention Services

September 26, 2007

AACVPR is pleased to announce the completion and upcoming publication of the nation’s first cardiac rehabilitation (CR) performance measures, the AACVPR/ACC/AHA Performance Measures on Cardiac Rehabilitation for Referral to and Delivery of Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Services.

Two sets of CR performance measures have been developed – the first seeks to improve referral of eligible CVD patients, and the second establishes standards of excellence for CR programs. The full text can be accessed online by clicking HERE.

What does this mean to AACVPR members? Marjorie King, MD, immediate past president of AACVPR, states that “Most CVD patients simply don’t receive a CR referral because it hasn’t been a mandated performance measure and no one is specifically responsible for making sure that it gets done. Every aspect of the new CR clinical guidelines is evidence-based, and our goal is to make CR for CVD patients as automatic as aspirin after myocardial infarction."

While the paper was initiated by the AACVPR, two other leading cardiac societies, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) collaborated to write the performance measures, which will be published in the September/October issue of the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, and the October 2 editions of Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In addition, the measures have been endorsed by nine U.S., Canadian and European medical societies.

Our work has just begun. Ongoing collaboration and outreach to heighten visibility and encourage adoption of these measures will continue with entities such as the National Quality Forum, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Joint Commission. AACVPR is working hard to encourage systematic and automatic referral to CR for all patients who qualify for CR services under the new expanded diagnoses.

AACVPR has launched a media campaign to reach professionals and consumers with news of the vast underutilization of CR and the goal of the new performance measures in providing a systematic solution to optimize CR referrals and CR patient care. The initial response from media has been outstanding. Reuters Health and MedPage Today have published the information, and an interview is currently under way with the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is fantastic visibility for the field of cardiac rehabilitation and the patients suffering from CVD.

Introduction of the CR performance measures also is expected to coincide with the publication of a new study on utilization rates of CR in Medicare patients in the October edition of Circulation, which we hope will further boost awareness and adoption. The article notes that despite strong evidence that cardiac rehabilitation reduces disability and prolongs life, fewer than one in five people receive rehabilitation services after a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery.

While exciting, performance measures only work if they are applied. We ask for your support in enacting and championing the new CR performance measures, and in informing and coordinating with the multidisciplinary teams who serve CVD patients. AACVPR will soon be launching a great tool kit, for members only, which will assist members in enhancing referrals to their facilities. There will be more information about the new benefit at the AACVPR annual meeting. Improved utilization and enhancing referrals to member programs will require work by both physicians and CR programs to minimize the barriers to enrollment in CR programs.