Improving Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Performance in an Urban Minority Population Using a Quality Improvement Approach

It has been well established that there are racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular care. Quality improvement initiatives have been recommended to proactively address these disparities. An initiative was implemented to improve timeliness of and access to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures among myocardial infarction patients at an academic medical center serving a predominantly minority population. The effort was part of a national quality improvement collaborative focused on improving cardiovascular care for Hispanic/Latino and African American/black populations. The proportion of primary PCI procedures performed within 90 minutes improved significantly from 17% in the first quarter of 2006 to 93% in the fourth quarter of 2008 (P <.001). There were no significant differences in the frequency with which Hispanic/Latino or African American/black patients received primary PCI therapy in comparison to nonmembers of these groups. Quality improvement techniques can improve the quality of and access to acute cardiovascular care for minority populations.