CMC Quality Assurance & Improvement 2

Question 1

Which metric is considered the gold standard for measuring door-to-balloon time in STEMI care?

Accepted Answer

Time from ED arrival to PCI wire crossing

Answer

Door-to-balloon time is measured from ED arrival to first balloon inflation (or wire crossing), the standard ACC/AHA benchmark being ≤90 minutes.

Question 2

A cardiac care unit notices a spike in central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). Which QI approach is most appropriate to identify root causes?

Accepted Answer

Run chart analysis followed by a fishbone diagram

Answer

Run charts visualize trends over time, and fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams systematically identify root causes — a standard QI pairing for infection spikes.

Question 3

In the context of cardiac quality improvement, what does the term 'reliability' refer to?

Accepted Answer

The percentage of eligible patients who receive a recommended evidence-based intervention

Answer

Reliability in QI is the rate at which a care system delivers an evidence-based process to every patient who should receive it, targeting near-100% compliance.

Question 4

A hospital is using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. In which phase would the team pilot a new rapid-response protocol on one unit?

Accepted Answer

Do

Answer

The 'Do' phase is where the planned change is executed or piloted, typically on a small scale before broader rollout.

Question 5

Which of the following is an example of a balancing measure in a cardiac QI project aimed at reducing unnecessary telemetry use?

Accepted Answer

Rate of missed arrhythmia events after protocol change

Answer

Balancing measures detect unintended harm from an improvement intervention — here, missed arrhythmias would signal that reduced monitoring caused patient safety gaps.

CMC - Cardiac Medicine Certification Practice Test

CMC - Cardiac Medicine Certification Practice Test

CMC Quality Assurance & Improvement 2