Care Improvement Strategies for Congestive Heart Failure Patients
Nearly five million Americans currently live with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), and approximately 550,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year according to statistical data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CHF is the primary diagnosis in 875,000 hospitalizations per year.
Management of CHF patients can prove to be particularly complex and challenging, and studies suggest that readmissions for CHF appear to be attributable to multiple factors. There are many opportunities to improve key outcomes, including transitions of care for the CHF patient by supporting better discharge planning, promoting the importance of adherence to diet and medication regimens and providing adequate patient education.
Although improving therapies and risk factor interventions have resulted in reduced death rates from CHF, rates of re-hospitalization for CHF remain high. To assist hospitalists in their care of inpatients with CHF, SHM has developed a suite of resources and educational opportunities.
SHM's CHF Implementation Guide
This guide informs hospitalists and other hospital clinicians about quality and patient safety initiatives developed to improve care and outcomes for CHF patients. It focuses on comprehensive intervention strategies to reduce readmissions by improving inpatient care and the hospital-to-home transition.
Disclaimer
This Implementation Guide is supported in part by an unrestricted grant from AMGEN.
The Congestive Heart Failure Guide is a resource for visitors to the Society of Hospital Medicine's website. All content and links have been reviewed by CHF Project Team, however, the Society of Hospital Medicine does not exercise any editorial control over content associated with the external links that have been made available via this website.
