Readmission Rates: What Congestive Heart Failure Patients Need to Know

With an increasing amount of heart failure patients being discharged without the proper education and understanding of congestive heart failure, as well as adequate outpatient recourses, thirty-day readmission rates continue to rise. Recent publication from the Joint Commission now requires hospitals to provide their heart failure patients with discharge instructions consisting of six principles for the proper management of congestive heart failure: exercise, daily weight monitoring, diet, medication adherence, outpatient follow up/recourses, and the signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure exacerbation. Despite the implementation of these guidelines, thirty-day readmission rates still remain high due to complications that arise within the first month after discharge. This may be due to a lack of an evidence-based approach as to whether a patients’ comprehension of these discharge instructions affect thirty-day readmission rates. This poster presentation will provide multiple case examples using an evidence-based approach on how the comprehension of discharge information affects the thirty-day readmission rate, as well as a discussion on the efficacy various teaching modalities. With an increasing amount of heart failure patients being discharged without the proper education and understanding of congestive heart failure, as well as adequate outpatient recourses, thirty-day readmission rates continue to rise. Recent publication from the Joint Commission now requires hospitals to provide their heart failure patients with discharge instructions consisting of six principles for the proper management of congestive heart failure: exercise, daily weight monitoring, diet, medication adherence, outpatient follow up/recourses, and the signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure exacerbation. Despite the implementation of these guidelines, thirty-day readmission rates still remain high due to complications that arise within the first month after discharge. This may be due to a lack of an evidence-based approach as to whether a patients’ comprehension of these discharge instructions affect thirty-day readmission rates. This poster presentation will provide multiple case examples using an evidence-based approach on how the comprehension of discharge information affects the thirty-day readmission rate, as well as a discussion on the efficacy various teaching modalities

Author(s): Kevin Liebmann

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