Main Findings : The results indicate that an intervention involving any human factor principles may nearly double an individual ’s probability of not being readmitted .
Principal Conclusions : Interventions with human factor principles reduce readmissions among HF patients .
Background : Human factors play an important role in health-care outcomes of heart failure ( HF ) patients .
A systematic review and meta- analysis of clinical trial studies on HF hospitalization may yield positive proofs of the beneficial effect of specific care management strategies .
Purpose : To investigate how the 8 guiding principles of choice , rest , environment , activity , trust , interpersonal relationships , outlook , and nutrition reduce HF readmissions .
Limited long term effects of a management programme for heart failure
Objective : To evaluate the effects of a nurse based outpatient management programme for elderly patients discharged with heart failure from a university hospital . Design : Patients with heart failure ( New York Heart Association class II – IV ) and left ventricular systolic dysfunction aged 60 years or more were r and omly assigned to follow up within the management programme or to conventional follow up , usually in primary care . Of the 208 participants , 58 % were men , mean age was 75 years , and mean ejection fraction 34 % . All patients were scheduled for three observational study visits at six month intervals . The primary end point was quality of life ( QoL ) and secondary end points were hospitalisation and mortality . Results : More patients achieved target doses of angiotensin converting enzyme ( ACE ) inhibitors in the intervention group than in the control group ( 82 % v 69 % , 88 % v 69 % , and 88 % v 74 % of recommended target doses at 6 , 12 , and 18 months of follow up , respectively , p < 0.05 for all ) . Patients with initial low QoL had a poor prognosis . After a mean 1122 days of follow up , 82 % of all patients had been readmitted . There were on average 4.7 readmissions per patient and 66 % were due to non-cardiac diagnoses . There were no differences in QoL or health care consumption between the two study groups during follow up . Conclusion : A nurse based management programme is more effective than follow up in primary care in optimising medication for elderly patients with heart failure . However , such a programme does not seem to have a favourable influence on QoL or readmission rate during long term follow up
Main Findings : The results indicate that an intervention involving any human factor principles may nearly double an individual ’s probability of not being readmitted .
Principal Conclusions : Interventions with human factor principles reduce readmissions among HF patients .
Background : Human factors play an important role in health-care outcomes of heart failure ( HF ) patients .
A systematic review and meta- analysis of clinical trial studies on HF hospitalization may yield positive proofs of the beneficial effect of specific care management strategies .
Purpose : To investigate how the 8 guiding principles of choice , rest , environment , activity , trust , interpersonal relationships , outlook , and nutrition reduce HF readmissions .