Patients With Heart Failure Readmitted to the Original Hospital Have Better Outcomes Than Those Readmitted Elsewhere [Health Services and Outcomes Research]

BackgroundUp to one fifth of readmissions after a heart failure hospitalization occur at a different hospital. This negatively impacts information continuity, but whether site of readmission impacts subsequent outcomes is unclear.Methods and ResultsRetrospective cohort study of all patients discharged with a primary diagnosis of heart failure in Canada between April 2004 and December 2013. We compared patients readmitted within 30 days to the original hospital versus a different hospital. Of the 217 039 heart failure patients (mean age, 76.8 years, 50.1% male), 39 368 (18.1%) were readmitted within 30 days—32 771 (83.2%) to the original hospital and 6597 (16.8%) to a different hospital (increasing over time from 15.6% in 2004 to 18.5% by 2013; P for trend=0.001). Patients readmitted to different hospitals were younger and were more likely to be male, have a rural residence, a more‐recent discharge year, an index hospitalization at a teaching hospital, and to be brought in by ambulance at the time of the readmission. Readmissions to the original hospital were substantially shorter (mean, 10.4 days [95% CI, 10.3–10.6] versus 11.6 days [95% CI, 11.3–12.0]; adjusted means, 11.0 versus 12.0; P

Source: JAHA:Journal of the American Heart Association - May 10, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: McAlister, F. A., Youngson, E., Kaul, P. Tags: Epidemiology, Heart Failure, Health Services Original Research Source Type: research