Why Should You Act?

• The majority of heart failure (HF) patients are managed by hospitalists¹

• Heart Failure is the most common diagnosis in hospitalized patients older than 65 and one-third of patients hospitalized for HF are readmitted to the hospital within 3 months^{2, 3}. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment of HF, over one million patients are hospitalized every year.³
• The quality of care for hospitalized HF patients differs significantly by hospitals and physicians and adherence to evidence-based guidelines is very low. Studies have shown that admissions for HF can be prevented with multidisciplinary disease management strategies^{1, 2, 3}.

   

• The last several years have shown great gains in standardization of heart failure treatment and ensuring that physicians provide medications that are best practice. Increasing, there is the realization that this approach by itself is not enough to ensure quality care for our patients. The good works of the individual may be lost in a system that fails to pass key information to the next level of care and fails to address the needs of the patient, family and their care providers. Increasing focus is being placed on readmissions for heart failure by CMS and other payers. Approximately 1:5 patients with HF will return to the hospital within 30 days. Improving communication, coordination of care and education are keys to decreasing the risk of readmission.
  Tools to improve the transition process may be found at the SHM BOOST Resource Room
  

¹Quality of Care for Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure
Assessing the Impact of Hospitalists Peter K. Lindenauer, MD, MSc; Rona Chehabeddine, MPH; Penelope Pekow, PhD; Janice Fitzgerald, MS, RN; Evan M. Benjamin, MD Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:1251-1256

²Gwadry-Sridhar FH, Flintoft V, Lee DS, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing readmission rates and mortality rates in patients with heart failure. Arch Intern Med 2004;164:2315-20.

³Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics--2006 Update. A Report From the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. 2006 Jan 11; [PubMed]