Impact of Heart Failure Focused Follow-Up Care at the “Heart Success Clinic” on 30-Day Readmission Rates in Patients with Congestive Heart Failure

Abstract

Nearly 6.2 million people in the United states are affected by heart failure, it is predicted that this number will rise to 8.5 million by 2030 Significant effort has been made to prevent heart failure and its exacerbations. The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), a Medicaare based program, was established to link payment to quality of care. Payment is reduced to hospitals when patients are readmitted within 30 days for heart failure The “Heart Success Clinic” is an outpatient clinic started to improve patient outcomes and reduce readmission rates. Patients are provided with heart failure focused visits which includes detailed medication reviews, diet modification, weight loss, disease education, etc. During the six months prior to the opening of the clinic, the readmission rate was 15.27% at AdventHealth Sebring hospital which is a community-based hospital. Data was collected on the patients who attended the “Heart Success Clinic” for six months. Zero patients from the clinic were readmitted, bringing the readmission rate down from 15.27% to 0%. This pilot study gives promising initial results. Further studies can be conducted over a longer period time as to gather more patients. Overall, the study demonstrates that there is value in providing heart failure focused follow up visits in improving patient outcomes and readmission rates.