Abstract
BACKGROUND: CIED infections carry significant morbidity and mortality. Guidelines differ in management recommendations for CIED infections, which can result in a lack of consensus amongst Infectious Disease (ID) and Cardiology providers caring for these patients. We sought to identify areas of disagreement and consensus in the care of CIED infections amongst ID and Cardiology providers at an academic medical center. We used these data as a needs assessment to develop an interdisciplinary educational intervention focused on standardizing our institutional approach toward CIED infections, to create an internal guideline and to develop a new multidisciplinary team (MDT) for assistance managing complex patients hospitalized with CIED infections. METHODS: A pre-intervention survey was delivered to advanced practitioner providers, fellows and faculty of the divisions of Cardiology, Electrophysiology (EP) and ID to assess content knowledge in the diagnosis and management of CIED infections, attitudes toward the formation of a MDT, and perception of the degree of consensus amongst these specialty providers. RESULTS: The survey was sent to 206 providers, 40 (19.4%) participated. Only 16/40 (40%) agreed that there was consensus within the ID division in managing patients with CIED infections, and only 8/40 (20%) agreed that there was consensus amongst Cardiology and EP providers. 37/40 (92.5%) agreed that a MDT approach would be beneficial. Some survey responses diverged significantly from guideline recommended management strategies, including only 50% of respondents recommending CIED extraction for devices eroding through the skin. For patients with CIED-related endocarditis, 35% recommended delaying reimplantation of a new CIED until completion of a full course of antibiotics, despite guideline recommendations of significantly shorter delays. CONCLUSION: Our survey revealed a striking lack of consensus amongst ID and Cardiology providers in the appropriate diagnosis and management of CIED infections, along with divergence from guideline recommendations in key areas. An interdisciplinary educational intervention to update provider content knowledge and unify interspecialty approaches could improve collaborative efforts and, ultimately, care of patients with CIED infections. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.