Key result
A quality improvement project utilizing education and poster reminders increased the screening rate for iron deficiency in patients with heart failure from 20% at baseline to 80%.
Why the study?
Iron deficiency is a significant comorbidity in heart failure whose correction improves outcomes, motivating a project to improve its assessment and treatment in a tertiary care centre.
Do quality improvement interventions improve the rates of iron deficiency screening and intravenous iron replacement in patients hospitalized with heart failure?
Do quality improvement interventions improve the rates of iron deficiency screening and intravenous iron replacement in patients hospitalized with heart failure?
Absolute Event Rate: 80% vs 20%
A structured quality improvement project using education and visual reminders successfully increased adherence to guideline-directed screening and treatment of iron deficiency in heart failure patients.
QI interventions may boost iron deficiency screening and treatment in HF inpatients; hypothesis-generating for outcome impact.
Background Iron deficiency (ID) has been shown to be a significant co-morbidity in patients with heart failure (HF), independent of their anaemia status. Correction of ID has been shown to improve quality of life, recurrent heart failure hospitalizations and morbidity. A quality improvement project was designed to improve the assessment and treatment of iron deficiency in HF patients in our tertiary care centre. Methods and results An initial baseline dataset was collected, followed by two cycles of interventions to help improve the care of HF patients admitted to our hospital over a two-month period. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach was applied, with the first intervention involving raising awareness of the importance and need to assess the iron status of HF patients through education provided to doctors, nurses and patients. Furthermore, information leaflets were produced and disseminated across the medical wards and through social media forums. The post-intervention datasets were collected and compared to the baseline outcomes. Baseline data showed that only four (20%) of heart failure patients had their iron status checked. Following the interventions, screening for ID increased to 80% (16), of which 85% (11) of those who identified as iron deficient received intravenous iron replacement. Conclusion The project was successful in improving the practice of screening for iron deficiency and intravenous replacement of iron in patients with HF.
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Yera et al. (2023) studied Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (n=60). Quality improvement interventions (education, posters, reminders) vs. Baseline practice was evaluated on Proportion of patients screened for iron deficiency. A quality improvement project utilizing education and poster reminders increased the screening rate for iron deficiency in patients with heart failure from 20% at baseline to 80%.
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