Table 2.

Baseline Practice Characteristics: Patient-Level Analysis

	Cohort
Characteristic	Total (N=4128)	Case (Dead) (N=1376)	Control (Alive) (N=2752)	P
Census region, n (%)				0.6075
South	1613 (39.1%)	553 (40.2%)	1060 (38.5%)
West	584 (14.1%)	185 (13.4%)	399 (14.5%)
Central	800 (19.4%)	258 (18.8%)	542 (19.7%)
Northeast	1131 (27.4%)	380 (27.6%)	751 (27.3%)
Outpatient practice setting, n (%)				0.2360
Nonuniversity, nonteaching	2821 (68.3%)	943 (68.5%)	1878 (68.2%)
Nonuniversity, teaching	914 (22.1%)	316 (23%)	598 (21.7%)
University, teaching	393 (9.5%)	117 (8.5%)	276 (10%)
Multispecialty, n (%)	943 (22.8%)	325 (23.6%)	618 (22.5%)	0.4015
Electronic health record system, n (%)				0.3758
Paper	1933 (46.8%)	636 (46.2%)	1297 (47.1%)
Electronic	1443 (35.0%)	473 (34.4%)	970 (35.2%)
Mixed	752 (18.2%)	267 (19.4%)	485 (17.6%)
HF nurse in practice (>1 FTE APN), n (%)	1698 (41.1%)	553 (40.2%)	1145 (41.6%)	0.3628
No. of electrophysiologists in practice				0.4108
Mean (SD)	1.7 (1.7)	1.7 (1.7)	1.7 (1.8)
Median (25th, 75th percentiles)	1 (0, 3)	1 (0, 3)	1 (0, 3)
No. of interventionalists in practice				0.6872
Mean (SD)	5.1 (3.3)	5 (3.3)	5.1 (3.3)
Median (25th, 75th percentiles)	5 (3, 6)	5 (3, 6)	5 (3, 6)
No. of HF clinic sessions in practice				0.9649
Mean (SD)	1.5 (0.5)	1.5 (0.5)	1.5 (0.5)
Median (25th, 75th percentiles)	2 (1, 2)	2 (1, 2)	2 (1, 2)
No. of cardiologists in practice				0.2364
Mean (SD)	13.9 (11.6)	13.6 (10.9)	14 (11.9)
Median (25th, 75th percentiles)	10 (7, 18)	10 (7, 18.5)	10 (7, 18)
No. of HF patients managed annually				0.6948
Mean (SD)	3601 (3968.6)	3565 (3820.2)	3619.4 (4043)
Median (25th, 75th percentiles)	2319 (700, 5000)	2319 (750, 5000)	2319 (700, 5000)

APN indicates advanced practice nurse; FTE, full-time equivalent; HF, heart failure; SD, standard deviation.