title: The Relationship Among Heart Failure Disease Management, Quality of Care, and Hospitalizations.
abstract: Heart failure (HF) affects 5.1 million adult patients, accounting for over 1 million hospitalizations, 1.8 million office visits, and nearly 680,000 emergency department visits annually. HF hospitalizations have been incorporated into a national measure of hospital and provider quality, with associated financial penalties based on the 30-day readmission rate after an index hospitalization for HF. However, it is not clear whether the number of HF-related hospitalizations or 30-day readmissions is consistently related to quality of care. The relationships between various measures of HF care quality and hospitalization rates were evaluated by performing a cohort study of an HF disease management program in a clinical practice setting. Following the statistical analyses assessing outcomes and survival, the conclusion was that an HF disease management program in clinical practice associated with improved utilization of evidence-based medical and device therapies tends to improve ejection fraction and survival, and reduce sex and race disparities, but not with an associated reduction in hospitalizations or total hospital days.
authors: Eugene S
authors: ES
authors: Chung
authors: Cheryl
authors: C
authors: Bartone
authors: Kathleen
authors: K
authors: Daly
authors: Santosh
authors: S
authors: Menon
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: McDonald
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies