Applying five key success factors to optimize the quality of care for patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease.

Quality improvement (QI) efforts aimed at optimizing adherence to coronary artery disease quality indicators are helping to bridge the serious gaps in the quality of care for this population. Motivation for these initiatives is prompted by a number of sources, including the public reporting of hospitals' adherence to these indicators found on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Web site. Although complex barriers challenge QI efforts, results of recent studies demonstrate that the use of five key success factors reduces these barriers and accelerates improvement. Integral components of this model include administrative support that cultivates a blameless culture that strives for perfection; committed and respected champions; goals that are shared within the organization; the use of timely, credible data at the organizational and individual levels; and implementation of a QI initiative tailored to the complexity of the project. In this review article, the authors discuss how quality of care is measured, provide examples of successful QI programs, and describe how the use of a QI model composed of five key success factors can accelerate QI efforts and optimize the care of patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease.