A comparison study of the utilization of National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines by cardiology and internal medicine practices: implications for the advanced practice nurse.

Purpose: To determine whether patients with hypercholesterolemia were being treated according to the updated 2001 National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) clinical guidelines and whether a difference existed between internists and cardiologists in the implementation of these guidelines.

Data sources: This retrospective study used data obtained from a review of 200 patient charts that were compared with the NCEP guidelines.

Conclusions: Results indicated that 67% of internal medicine patients and 71% of cardiology patients who qualified for pharmaceutical treatment received prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering medications. The difference between internal medicine and cardiology physicians was not statistically significant.

Implications for practice: Like physicians, nurse practitioners should become familiar with and utilize the updated guidelines as standards of practice to promote and improve patient outcomes over the life span.