Methods to a improve clinicians' adherence to guideline-driven care are crucial to any organizational quality improvement toolkit, so one of our top takeaways from ACC 2022 is this study presenting an evidence-based, effective quality assurance method: leveraging a customized EHR alert was found to improve clinicians' adherence to guidelines for Heart Failure treatment.

Despite the frustration that EHRs can cause clinicians, we are optimistic that as each generation of software continues to improve the clinician's experience, accurate documentation, which is so important to quality improvement (and a constant refrain in our Common Areas for Quality Improvement in the Cath Lab), will systemically improve and EHRs will be able to facilitate strong quality assurance and improvement efforts like this one with fewer drawbacks.

And another of our top takeaways from ACC 2022 is an area for systemic improvement in cardiology, as a Medicare analysis found that four-in-five infected CIEDs were not removed within 30 days, as recommended by major societies.

Adherence to evidence-based care guidelines is a critical piece of quality assurance and quality improvement in cardiology, but this example of an area where guidelines are not met in 81.8% of patients seems to indicate a larger issue in translating guidelines to practice consistently.

At Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence, our data suggest regular accreditation is a critical piece of that puzzle, ensuring accredited organizations are engaging with and operationalizing updated guidelines on a regular basis and independent of operator/personnel changes.