Abstract 49: Variation In Cardiac Rehabilitation Enrollment During Aortic Valve Replacement Episodes Of Care

Intro: Despite providing benefit in the setting of aortic valve replacement (AVR), cardiac rehabilitation (CR) utilization remains low, with few studies evaluating hospital and patient-level variation in CR enrollment. We explored determinants of CR variability during AVR episodes of care: transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR).

Methods/Results: A cohort of 10,124 AVR episodes of care (TAVR n=5,121 from 24 hospitals; SAVR n=5,003 from 32 hospitals) were identified from the Michigan Value Collaborative statewide multipayer registry (2015 to 2019). CR enrollment was defined as the presence of a professional or facility claim (93797, 93798, G0422, G0423) within 90 days of discharge. Annual trends in CR were evaluated for TAVR, SAVR, and all AVR. CR use in SAVR was significantly higher than TAVR and increased over time for all modalities (p<0.001, Figure 1). Multilevel logistic regression analysis identified significant differences in CR enrollment across age groups, comorbidities, and payer status. At the hospital-level, CR enrollment rates for all AVR varied 10-fold (4.8% to 68.7%) and moderately correlated between SAVR and TAVR (Pearson r=0.56, p<0.01, Figure 2).

Conclusions: Substantial variation exists in CR enrollment during AVR episodes of care across hospitals. However, within-hospital CR enrollment rates were significantly correlated across treatment strategies. These findings suggest that CR enrollment is the product of hospital-specific practice patterns. Identifying hospital practices associated with higher CR enrollment can help assist future quality improvement efforts to increase CR use after AVR.