Importance: The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released an updated national coverage determination proposal for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) that maintains a focus on hospital TAVR volume and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) volume, and the national coverage determination for transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) also has PCI volume requirements. However, the associations between hospital PCI volume and TAVR and TMVr outcomes are unknown.
Objective: To investigate whether hospital inpatient PCI volume is associated with rates of risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality and 30-day hospital readmission after TAVR and TMVr.
Design, setting, and participants: This population-based cross-sectional study of the 2016 Nationwide Readmissions Database included procedures completed in hospitals with a minimum of 5 TAVR or 5 TMVr procedures between January 1, 2016, and November 30, 2016.
Exposures: Hospitals were divided into quartiles based on annual inpatient PCI volumes.
Main outcomes and measures: Primary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and 30-day readmission rates. The associations between hospital inpatient PCI quartile and outcomes were evaluated using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Risk adjustment for in-hospital mortality rates was done through inclusion of variables based on the Elixhauser comorbidity classification, and risk adjustment for 30-day readmission rates was done in accordance with the Hospital-Wide Readmission Measure methodology used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for public reporting.
Results: There were 283 hospitals that performed at least 5 TAVRs, with a median inpatient PCI volume of 386 (interquartile range, 299-571) procedures, and 125 hospitals that performed at least 5 TMVr procedures, with a median inpatient PCI volume of 451 (interquartile range, 326-651) procedures. There was no association between hospital inpatient PCI volume and median TAVR risk-standardized in-hospital mortality (median [IQR] rates: bottom quartile, 1.82% [1.77%-1.90%]; second quartile, 1.81% [1.76%-1.86%]; third quartile, 1.81% [1.75%-1.90%]; top quartile, 1.82% [1.76%-1.91%]; P = .75) or the 30-day readmission (median [IQR] rates: bottom quartile, 13.6% [13.2%-14.3%]; second quartile, 13.3% [12.7%-14.0%]; third quartile, 13.5% [12.7%-14.3%]; top quartile, 13.8% [12.8%-14.3%]; P = .10) rates. Similarly, there was no association between hospital inpatient PCI volume and median TMVr risk-standardized in-hospital mortality rates (median [IQR] rates: bottom quartile, 1.84% [1.47%-2.53%]; second quartile, 1.65% [1.21%-3.02%]; third quartile, 1.80% [1.52%-3.58%]; top quartile, 1.76% [1.33%-4.20%]; P = .71) or 30-day readmission rates (median [IQR] rates: bottom quartile, 13.4% [13.1%-13.6%]; second quartile, 13.1% [12.9%-13.5%]; third quartile, 13.1% [12.9%-13.5%]; top quartile, 13.3% [12.8%-13.6%]; P = .30).
Conclusions and relevance: In this study, there was no association between inpatient PCI volume and TAVR or TMVr outcomes. Further evidence is needed to support inclusion of PCI volume minimums in national coverage determination requirements for hospital TAVR and TMVr programs.