Effect of an Educational Intervention on the Accuracy of Data Submitted to a National Quality Registry

We hypothesize that data-entry errors within the National Cardiovascular Data Registry® (NCDR) ICD Registry™ may be an important reason behind labeling many cases as nonevidence-based.

To describethe frequency of data-entry errors in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (lCD) implant data from our institution and develop a plan for quality improvement using the Deming cycle.

We assessed data of patient report forms from2007to 2010 and compared these data with forms submitted from 2011 to 2012 after implementation of a continuous multicomponent staff education and training program. Of 211 ICD implants between 2007 and 2010, 36 (17%) were labeled nonevidence-based. Twenty-four (11.4%) resulted from misclassification due to data entry errors and 12 (5.7%) were actual nonevidence-based. Postintervention, review of 97 submitted patients' data revealed one (1%) data-entry error and three (3.1%) actual nonevidence-based implants.

Multicomponent educational intervention was effective in reducing errors in data sub- mitted to the NCDR ICD Registry.