Reducing Readmission in CHF Patients Essay
The purpose of the Bridge Project under the National Heart Failure training Program (NHeFT) (It Takes a Community: Creating a Bridge to Improved Healthcare Outcomes for Heart Failure) is to stimulate quality improvement for patients with heart failure, including quality of life, and to disseminate this model to various care settings through collaborative efforts. Our short term plan is to reduce the 30 day readmission rate at your institution.
Studies included the tools to identify patients highest at risk for readmission, CHF clinic specific follow-up program, multidisciplinary approaches that include pharmacist’s being involved at the bedside and A literature review was conducted based on six research articles that focused on Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patients in the United States. Reducing Readmission in CHF Patients Essay. The six articles chosen utilized quantitative research that focused on a population of patients that were 65 years of age and older, and the readmission rate within a 30-day time period of initial hospitalization. Clinical data was also collected regarding tools that would identify the patients that were at risk for readmission within 30-day time period and interventions that could be implemented to reduce actual readmission rate, and financial impact to hospitals due to recurrent readmissions.
Predicting readmissions is important to both identify patients at-risk for readmissions, as well as risk adjust hospitals for comparison. A systematic review of 30 studies and 26 models unfortunately found that prediction models generally had poor discrimination with c-statistics ranging from 0.55 to 0.65 for models using administrative data alone, while other models used smaller populations that require further validation (Kansagara D, Englander H, 2011). Residual congestion at discharge has been noted in approximately 10%–15% of patients enrolled in randomized control trials and is associated with an increased risk for rehospitalization and mortality (Gattis WA, 2004). Reducing Readmission in CHF Patients Essay. Poor performance on the Mini-Cog exam was recently found to be both prevalent in a quarter of HF patients and doubled the risk of death or readmission during a mean follow-up of 6 months. Evaluation of health literacy, functional and cognitive status along with traditional markers of HF severity would strengthen models, but further validation is required.
In the final analysis, heart failure is a complex chronic disease. Nurse case managers can assist patients with heart failure by focusing on the patient’s individual needs which will foster independent disease management. The nurse case managers can assist patients and caregivers with disease education, resource allocations, and coordination of inpatient and outpatient care services. Ongoing monitoring may identify symptoms that could be effectively managed before they lead to a hospital readmission.
Gattis WA, O’Connor CM, Gallup DS, Hasselblad V, Gheorghiade M. Predischarge initiation of carvedilol in patients hospitalized for decompensated heart failure: results of the initiation management predischarge: process for assessment of carvedilol therapy in heart
Ambrosy AP, et al. Clinical course and predictive value of congestion during hospitalization in patients admitted for worsening signs and symptoms of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: findings from the EVEREST trial.
Reducing Readmission in CHF Patients Essay