Introduction and objectives
The efficacy of heart failure programs has been demonstrated in clinical trials but their applicability in the real world practice setting is more controversial. This study evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of an integrated hospital-primary care program for the management of patients with heart failure in an integrated health area covering a population of 309聽345.
Methods
For the analysis, we included all patients consecutively admitted with heart failure as the principal diagnosis who had been discharged alive from all of the hospitals in Catalonia, Spain, from 2005 to 2011, the period when the program was implemented, and compared mortality and readmissions among patients exposed to the program with the rates in the patients of all the remaining integrated health areas of the Servei Catal脿 de la Salut (Catalan Health Service).
Results
We included 56聽742 patients in the study. There were 181聽204 hospital admissions and 30聽712 deaths during the study period. In the adjusted analyses, when compared to the 54聽659 patients from the other health areas, the 2083 patients exposed to the program had a lower risk of death (hazard ratio = 0.92 [95% confidence interval, 0.86-0.97]; P = .005), a lower risk of clinically-related readmission (hazard ratio = 0.71 [95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.76]; P < .001), and a lower risk of readmission for heart failure (hazard ratio = 0.86 [95% confidence interval, 0.80-0.94]; P < .001). The positive impact on the morbidity and mortality rates was more marked once the program had become well established.
Conclusions
The implementation of multidisciplinary heart failure management programs that integrate the hospital and the community is feasible and is associated with a significant reduction in patient morbidity and mortality.
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