Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Coronary Artery Disease Patients: Opportunities for Improvement

Abstract

Background. We sought to characterize the level of LDL-C control and identify opportunities for improvement and characteristics of patients who were undertreated. Methods. Study patients were from a large multihospital system, age 10 patients in the cohort, mean last recorded LDL-C values ranged from 47 to 102 mg/dL. Conclusions. There were important variations in LDL-C control between patients in our health system with the same indication for treatment. Variation in treatment among physicians is an area ripe for quality improvement interventions. This study may be easily reproduced by other medical centers and used for highlighting both patient and physician opportunities for improvement.