Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure is a leading cause of hospitalization among adult patients in developed countries. Improvement of healthcare quality thus lies upon prioritizing the reduction of early hospital readmissions, in this case, less than 30 days. Reports have since indicated that the condition also presents with it very high hospitalization rates (Ponikowski, Voors, Anker, Bueno, Cleland, Coats, and Falk, 2016). The estimated prevalence of heart failure in a sample population proved to increase as the cohorts aged (Ambrosy, Fonarow, Butler, Chioncel, Greene, Vaduganathan, and Nodari, 2014). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the US has acknowledged that readmission rates are often attributed to poor coordination and continuity among treatment providers.
A study conducted by a group of researchers aimed to synthesize the evidence of the efficacy of interventions to reduce early hospital readmissions and identify intervention measures geared towards the condition. It also analyses the readmission rates by investigating the variables, self-monitoring, lifestyle changes and routine care accorded by primary caregivers (Leppin, Gionfriddo, Kessler, Brito, Mair, Gallacher, Wang, Erwin, Sylvester, Boehmer, Ting, Murrad, Shippee, and Montori, 2014). From the literature materials reviewed on the rates of readmissions and the prevalence of the disease, various studies were conducted to among which are; retrospective trials, cross-sectional studies and various other studies which gave informative statistics on the disease. The literature reviewed focused on monitoring the patient over a period of time between 30 days to 180 days after discharge.
The healthcare management sector has experienced immense advancement in healthcare measures and technological innovations geared towards treatment and management of heart failure. However, there has not been an effective discharge plan that will enable effective heart failure management as it still remains to have high hospitalization and re-hospitalization rates. This trend has been experienced among the aged population and especially those aged 65 years and above. The high rates of hospitalization presented by the prevailing situation in healthcare management have also created within the health sector and the entire nation a huge economic burden. Studies show that nearly 20% of discharges are followed by an adverse event within 30 days majorly due to improper treatment patterns, insufficient providence of necessary follow-up care and lack of compliance among the patients. This then leads to increased readmission rates in CHF among patients who had earlier been primarily diagnosed with CHF. The study, therefore, seeks to establish ways in which healthcare management can provide within itself effective discharge plan while comparing routine care and patient self-care practices.
