Assessment of the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the management of systolic heart failure in Chinese patients using a home-based intervention.
This study was designed to assess the clinical effect of a home-based telephone intervention in Chinese heart failure patients. A total of 550 Chinese heart failure patients were enrolled into either (i) a group that received the usual standard of care (UC group); or (ii) a group that received a home-based heart failure centre management programme using nursing specialist-led telephone consultations (HFC group). The impact of the home-based intervention on admission rate, admission length and medical costs over 6 months was measured. Although the mean left ventricular ejection fraction in HFC patients was 29.3% compared with 34.8% in UC patients, the home-based intervention resulted in a significantly lower all-cause admission rate per person (HFC 0.60 +/- 0.77 times/person; UC 0.96 +/- 0.85 times/person), a shorter all-cause hospital stay (reduced by 8 days per person) and lower total 6-month medical costs (reduced by US$2682 per patient). These results suggest that the home-based intervention with nursing specialist-led telephone consultations may improve the clinical outcome and provide cost-savings for Chinese patients with heart failure.
Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Y-H
YH
Chen
Y-L
YL
Ho
H-C
HC
Huang
H-W
HW
Wu
C-Y
CY
Lee
T-P
TP
Hsu
C-L
CL
Cheng
M-F
MF
Chen
D044466:Asian People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054143:Heart Failure, Systolic / Q000191:economics* / Q000451:nursing*; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D010359:Patient Readmission; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D017216:Telemedicine; D013689:Telephone