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  Back to Cardiac care

July 28, 2022 — In 2016, ������ϱ�and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) entered into a partnership to monitor and report on the quality of cardiac care Canadians were receiving across the country. 6 years later, this successful partnership is releasing its final report and the initiative is coming to an end. But what did this journey toward improved cardiac care look like? 

The initial steps were to review and refine existing Cardiac Care quality indicators (CCQIs) to ensure that they were of high quality and meaningful to the Canadian cardiac care community. The indicators provided pan-Canadian comparisons of mortality and readmission outcomes following key cardiac interventions in cardiac surgery and cardiology.

Next, the focus was on facilitating the use of the indicators for quality improvement and rolling out a CCQI public reporting strategy. The first public release of the CCQI report Reference1 was in 2017, with annual updates thereafter. The report was the first of its kind to demonstrate the variation and best outcomes of indicators across the country. This led to valuable discussions and the sharing of best practices at all levels (local, regional and national). Ultimately, the initiative served as a catalyst for the improvement of cardiac care across Canada’s health care systems.  

“The CCQI initiative has contributed to improvements in several key areas related to cardiac care interventions across Canadian jurisdictions,” said Dr. Paul Dorian, chair of the CCS Quality Project Steering Committee. “Collaborating with ������ϱ�helped us advance our goals of ensuring that Canadians receive high-quality and equitable cardiac care, and we are proud of the contribution we have made to Canada’s health systems.”   

The 2022 update of the CCQI data tables Reference2 is the final report of this suite of indicators. The past 5 annual updates showed improvements in cardiac care and less variability in key indicators of care provided to Canadians across jurisdictions over time. For example, 4 of the 6 indicators improved at the national level, with improvements ranging from 8% to 22%. The most recent results show that most cardiac centres are also performing better than or the same as the Canada average across all 6 indicators, with little variability now existing across all centres. “The CCQI initiative demonstrates that Canadians are receiving excellent cardiac surgical care regardless of where they live in Canada,” noted doctors Jim Abel and Ansar Hassan, co-chairs of the CCS Cardiac Surgery Quality Working Group. 

The decision to stop reporting is based on the high quality of cardiac care across Canada today, and the need for ������ϱ�to focus on other emerging issues in health care, as identified by stakeholders across the country.

“The extensive collaboration between CIHI, CCS, cardiac leaders and the broader cardiac care community on the CCQI initiative contributed to monitoring of and improvements in cardiac care quality in Canada,” said Sunita Karmakar-Hore, manager of ������ϱ� System Performance Reporting at CIHI. “We are always happy to see our data being used to enhance health care for Canadians, and partnerships like this help make that possible.”

The CCQI initiative has contributed to improvements in several key areas related to cardiac care interventions across Canadian jurisdictions. Collaborating with ������ϱ�helped us advance our goals of ensuring that Canadians receive high-quality and equitable cardiac care, and we are proud of the contribution we have made to Canada’s health systems. — Dr. Paul Dorian, Chair, CCS Quality Project Steering Committee