{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T09:18:09Z","timestamp":1781169489929,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Open Qual"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2018,6,2]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) follow-up care is a crucial part of the AMI recovery process. The American College of Cardiology\u2019s \u2018See You in 7 Challenge\u2019 advocates that all patients discharged with a diagnosis of AMI have a cardiac rehabilitation referral made and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointment scheduled to occur within 7 days of hospital discharge. A streamlined AMI cardiac rehabilitation referral and appointment scheduling process was not in place at this urban academic medical centre. To develop the streamlined processes, a Six Sigma project was initiated. Four months before the intervention, 1\/38 patients with AMI (2.6%) were scheduled to have the initial outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointment occur within 7 days of hospital discharge, with an average 18.7 days from hospital discharge to the scheduled initial outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointment. To reduce the time to this initial appointment, availability of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointments was increased, additional staff were trained in appointment scheduling and insurance verification processes and appointments were scheduled prior to hospital discharge. After intervention, the number of patients scheduled to attend an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointment within 7 days of hospital discharge improved to 72\/79 (91.1%) (two-proportion test, p&lt;0.001). Days from hospital discharge to first scheduled outpatient cardiac rehabilitation appointment were reduced from 18.7 days to 6.3 days (a 66.3% reduction) (Mann-Whitney U test, p&lt;0.01). Initial outpatient cardiac rehabilitation attendance within 7 days of hospital discharge increased from 1\/38 (2.6%) to 42\/79 (53.2%) (a 50.6% increase) (two-proportion test, p&lt;0.001).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjoq-2017-000296","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,4]],"date-time":"2018-07-04T02:45:15Z","timestamp":1530672315000},"page":"e000296","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["See You in 7: improving acute myocardial infarction follow-up care"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Alex","family":"Batten","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Services; Project Management Office, Memorial Health System, Springfield, Illinois, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2726-6867","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cassie","family":"Jaeger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Services; Project Management Office, Memorial Health System, Springfield, Illinois, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Griffen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paula","family":"Harwood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Services; Project Management Office, Memorial Health System, Springfield, Illinois, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Karen","family":"Baur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiovascular Services; Project Management Office, Memorial Health System, Springfield, Illinois, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.1","unstructured":"King M . Hospital-to-Home \u201cSee You in 7\u201d Tools Updated for Cardiac Rehab Awareness Week.\u00a0American College of Cardiology. 2013 http:\/\/blog.acc.post\/h2h-seeyou-in-7-tools-updated-for-cardiac-rehab-awareness-week\/ (accessed 3 Nov 2017)."},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.2","unstructured":"See You in 7 [Internet]. American College of Cardiology: Quality Improvement For Institutions. 2013 https:\/\/cvquality.acc.org\/Initiatives\/H2H\/Projects\/SeeYouin-7.aspx (cited 2 May 2017)."},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jchf.2015.06.007"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2010.533"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMsa0803563"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amjmed.2014.02.008"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.121996"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1161\/CIR.0b013e318246b1e5"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00008483-200403000-00002"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.088799"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.093310"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1161\/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.701466"},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.13","unstructured":"Arthur J . Lean six sigma for hospitals: Improving patient safety, patient flow and the bottom line. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2016."},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.14","unstructured":"American Heart Association. Cardiac rehabilitation: putting more patients on the road to recovery. http:\/\/www.heart.org\/idc\/groups\/heart-public\/@wcm\/@adv\/documents\/downloadable\/ucm_461340.pdf (accessed 3 Nov 2017)."},{"key":"2025083110254428000_7.2.e000296.15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"302","DOI":"10.5694\/j.1326-5377.1992.tb137179.x","article-title":"Follow-up care after acute myocardial infarction","volume":"157","author":"Czarn","year":"1992","journal-title":"Med J Aust"}],"container-title":["BMJ Open Quality"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/bmjoq-2017-000296","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,31]],"date-time":"2025-08-31T17:25:52Z","timestamp":1756661152000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/qir.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/bmjoq-2017-000296"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]},"references-count":15,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/bmjoq-2017-000296"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/bmjoq-2017-000296","relation":{},"ISSN":["2399-6641"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2399-6641","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]}}}