Case conferences for infective endocarditis: A quality improvement initiative

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Critical Care Medicine
• Neurology
• Cardiac Surgery

Background:

• Infective endocarditis management traditionally benefits from a multidisciplinary approach.
• The study investigates the impact of structured multidisciplinary case conferences on patient outcomes.
• Evaluating the effect on morbidity, mortality, and quality of care is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of multidisciplinary case conferences in managing infective endocarditis.
• To determine the influence of these conferences on patient morbidity and mortality.
• To evaluate improvements in the quality of care for infective endocarditis patients.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental study design comparing patients before and after intervention implementation.
• Inclusion of consecutive patients admitted for infective endocarditis.
• Conferences involved specialists in cardiac surgery, cardiology, critical care, infectious diseases, and neurology, conducted face-to-face or electronically.

Main Results:

• 100% of post-intervention patients attended case conferences.
• Increased rates of inpatient cardiology assessment (81.3% vs. 63.9%) and cardiac surgery (44.6% vs. 21.7%) were observed post-intervention.
• No significant differences in complications (40.0% vs. 51.5%) or 90-day mortality (26.3% vs. 17.5%) were found.

Conclusions:

• A standardized multidisciplinary case conference protocol for infective endocarditis was successfully implemented.
• The intervention did not lead to a statistically significant reduction in complications or mortality.
• Further research may be needed to optimize multidisciplinary approaches for infective endocarditis.