Improved National Outcomes Achieved in a Cardiac Learning Health Collaborative Based on Early Performance Level

Within the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC), a learning health network developed to improve outcomes for patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and variants, we assessed which centers contributed to reductions in mortality and growth failure.

Centers within the NPC-QIC were divided into tertiles based on early performance for mortality and separately for growth failure. These groups were evaluated for improvement from the early to late time period and compared with the other groups in the late time period.

Mortality was 3.8% for the high-performing, 7.6% for the medium-performing, and 14.4% for the low-performing groups in the early time period. Only the low-performing group had a significant change (P < .001) from the early to late period. In the late period, there was no difference in mortality between the high- (5.7%), medium- (7%), and low- (4.6%) performing centers (P = .5). Growth failure occurred in 13.9% for the high-performing, 21.9% for the medium-performing, and 32.8% for the low-performing groups in the early time period. Only the low-performing group had a significant change (P < .001) over time. In the late period, there was no significant difference in growth failure between the high- (19.8%), medium- (21.5%), and low- (13.5%) performing groups (P = .054).

Improvements in the NPC-QIC mortality and growth measures are primarily driven by improvement in those performing the worst in these areas initially without compromising the success of high-performing centers. Focus for improvement may vary by center based on performance.